So Maddddd

[zyggy 9]

Just to let everyone know.. it's almost never more advantageous to file as married filing seperately... you lose a lot of credits and deductions if you do so.. including

EIC

Student Loan Interest Decuction

Itemizing your Deductions in some cases

Child and Dependent Care Credit

Credit for the Elderly and Disabled

and some Education Credits...

[mawilson 2,133]

I woundn't do that. What if he needs his passport back? It can take a while for IRS to resend it back to her. Beeter to get it notorized.

I reckon a new passport costs less than $80 in Mexico.

[chiquita 0]

LOL you would think my profession was not accounting and that I didn't take 2 semesters of tax accounting in college! The truth is, no I don't comprehend a lot of this but how you've just written that makes a lot of sense. I think it sounds like a good option, the only problem's going to be convincing Javier to spend a week's worth of income to make the trip to a US Consulate and get the passport notarized, so I can get some extra money that he won't see a penny of....hmmmmmm.....

But he is your husband, it will benifit the both of you. Figure how how much you will gain to have him file with you vs the $80 bucks he spends to get the passport notorized. Sound reasonable?

Or you could just ask him to FedEx his passport to your address in the U.S. and then mail it to the IRS.

I woundn't do that. What if he needs his passport back? It can take a while for IRS to resend it back to her. Beeter to get it notorized.

chi

ops...

But he is your husband, it will benifit the both of you. Figure how how much you will gain to have him file with you vs the $80 bucks he spends to get the passport notorized. Sound reasonable?

Looks like the figuring has been done for you! Gee what a nice person!

I woundn't do that. What if he needs his passport back? It can take a while for IRS to resend it back to her. Beeter to get it notorized.

I reckon a new passport costs less than $80 in Mexico.

Ok, so he spends $160.00 to get how much back? Again sounds like a good deal to me!

[zyggy 9]

Ok, so he spends $160.00 to get how much back? Again sounds like a good deal to me!

A 750% return on investment always looks like a good deal to me...

BTW... my fee is 10% of what's saved

I'll take it in Free VJ bucks...

Edited January 3, 2007 by zyggy

[chiquita 0]

Look folks the bottom line is if you are married and you spouse in not yet in the states you can indeed file married as long as you get the ITIN. If you dont know all the ins and outs of it get someone to help or hire a tax agency. I keep seeing all the go arounds as to whether it is allowed and so forth over the years. It is legal.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Just a quick suggestion: we purchased one of the huge tax guides for the year we were married to figure out how to do our taxes to our greatest advantage. We actually did some trial runs with the different options to determine what was best. It was a very worthwhile investment and I highly recommend it. For clarification about one of the issues we had, I sent an email to the IRS Help Line and received back detailed, clear instructions that were completely relevant to our question: http://www.irs.gov/help/article/0,,id=97185,00.html

[chiquita 0]

Ok, so he spends $160.00 to get how much back? Again sounds like a good deal to me!

A 750% return on investment always looks like a good deal to me...

BTW... my fee is 10% of what's saved

I'll take it in Free VJ bucks...

You're good real good.

Maybe they can hire you?

[chiquita 0]

Just to let everyone know.. it's almost never more advantageous to file as married filing seperately... you lose a lot of credits and deductions if you do so.. including

EIC

Student Loan Interest Decuction

Itemizing your Deductions in some cases

Child and Dependent Care Credit

Credit for the Elderly and Disabled

and some Education Credits...

Thats the truth. Even if you hate your spouse, file together and slpit it.

[tom&tata 2]

Just to let everyone know.. it's almost never more advantageous to file as married filing seperately... you lose a lot of credits and deductions if you do so.. including

EIC

Student Loan Interest Decuction

Itemizing your Deductions in some cases

Child and Dependent Care Credit

Credit for the Elderly and Disabled

and some Education Credits...

I think using the Form 2555 also means you loose some credit. I remember we were discussing that before too. I might forget all about it already I guess after 2 years

[zyggy 9]

Just to let everyone know.. it's almost never more advantageous to file as married filing seperately... you lose a lot of credits and deductions if you do so.. including

EIC

Student Loan Interest Decuction

Itemizing your Deductions in some cases

Child and Dependent Care Credit

Credit for the Elderly and Disabled

and some Education Credits...

I think using the Form 2555 also means you loose some credit. I remember we were discussing that before too. I might forget all about it already I guess after 2 years

It does somewhat... In that you have to reduce some of your itemized deductions based on the proportion of foreign income to US income...

But in this case, the ration would probably be small... and you can always go back to the standard deduction...

[zyggy 9]

Just a quick suggestion: we purchased one of the huge tax guides for the year we were married to figure out how to do our taxes to our greatest advantage. We actually did some trial runs with the different options to determine what was best. It was a very worthwhile investment and I highly recommend it. For clarification about one of the issues we had, I sent an email to the IRS Help Line and received back detailed, clear instructions that were completely relevant to our question: http://www.irs.gov/help/article/0,,id=97185,00.html

Who needs a tax guide.. you have the tax experts at VJ (there are a few more) who are experienced in foreign and cross border relationship taxation ready and willing to help you out

But still get the tax guide... there is always room for more knowledge... because knowledge is power...it's nice that you have someone to help you out.. but it is infinitely better if you understand it yourself...

And believe me you can count the number of people who are on your hand...

Edited January 3, 2007 by zyggy

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Just a quick suggestion: we purchased one of the huge tax guides for the year we were married to figure out how to do our taxes to our greatest advantage. We actually did some trial runs with the different options to determine what was best. It was a very worthwhile investment and I highly recommend it. For clarification about one of the issues we had, I sent an email to the IRS Help Line and received back detailed, clear instructions that were completely relevant to our question: http://www.irs.gov/help/article/0,,id=97185,00.html

Who needs a tax guide.. you have the tax experts at VJ (there are a few more) who are experienced in foreign and cross border relationship taxation ready and willing to help you out

And believe me you can count the number of people who are on your hand...

Well, yes, that is true too. :-). We had to figure it all out before I found VJ so didn't know we had access to those experts. The one thing I did find useful, however,and is why I will still recommend purchasing a tax guide, is that the tax guide explains how the US does taxation which is a vastly different system than is done in Canada. It helped me to gain an overal perspective of the differences. For someone moving here from a foreign country and who has been used to doing their own taxes or managing their own financial affairs, it may help give some information on how to continue that in the US. After all, you may find yourself in a situation where you don't have access to the tax experts at VJs:-)!

Heheheh - just saw your edit- I was going to add Knowledge is Power too, then decided not to. I totally agree!

Edited January 3, 2007 by Kathryn41

[zyggy 9]

Just a quick suggestion: we purchased one of the huge tax guides for the year we were married to figure out how to do our taxes to our greatest advantage. We actually did some trial runs with the different options to determine what was best. It was a very worthwhile investment and I highly recommend it. For clarification about one of the issues we had, I sent an email to the IRS Help Line and received back detailed, clear instructions that were completely relevant to our question: http://www.irs.gov/help/article/0,,id=97185,00.html

Who needs a tax guide.. you have the tax experts at VJ (there are a few more) who are experienced in foreign and cross border relationship taxation ready and willing to help you out

And believe me you can count the number of people who are on your hand...

Well, yes, that is true too. :-). We had to figure it all out before I found VJ so didn't know we had access to those experts. The one thing I did find useful, however,and is why I will still recommend purchasing a tax guide, is that the tax guide explains how the US does taxation which is a vastly different system than is done in Canada. It helped me to gain an overal perspective of the differences. For someone moving here from a foreign country and who has been used to doing their own taxes or managing their own financial affairs, it may help give some information on how to continue that in the US. After all, you may find yourself in a situation where you don't have access to the tax experts at VJs:-)!

Chuckle...

My wife is exactly the same way (she's from Canada as well)... she took a tax class so she could understand what I was doing with our taxes...

She didn't want to trust me to do all the taxes and just have her sign her name away

LOL

[zyggy 9]

Oh and another tip...

MissLiss...

I'm assuming that your witholding has been as Single 1 Deduction for the last year... you're going to get a pretty big payoff by filing as married filing joint

You may want to look into changing your deductions to Married and 2 Deductions for 2007. You'll probably get something like another 100 bucks or so a paycheck...

Edited January 3, 2007 by zyggy