Foreign Income Credit while also having "Other Income"

[Fluffinhos 17]

Hello VJ,

I have what I hope is a simple immigration-related tax question, that I haven’t been able to find the answer to anywhere.

I am planning on marrying in 2015, and filing Married Filing Jointly to minimize tax liability for 2015. My future wife will have income earned in her home country, which we will declare on Form 2555-EZ, and will be untaxed in the USA.

Specifically, we will be including her foreign income on form 1040 Line 7 (Wages, etc.), and then subtracting it on Form 1040 Line 21 (“other income”).

The complication for me is that my main source of income (1099G) is also “other income” to be reported on Line 21. Is there any way to itemize different sources of “other income” on Line 21? Or should I just subtract the Foreign Income Credit from my actual Line 21 income, and expect to be audited?

My source of “other income” is a 1099-G that is reported to the IRS, and so if I subtract my future wife’s foreign income from it, it will appear that I am misreporting my earnings.

Does anyone here have a proposed solution?

Thank you!

-Fluffinhos

[JohnR! 5,495]

I'd recommend you use TurboTax or some other kind of software for your tax preparations. All you need do is complete the fields and the s/w will put the figures in their correct places. It's well worth the peace of mind and will save you a lot of time trying to figure out what goes where. Failing that, consider using a tax preparation service such as H&R Block if you're not comfortable with doing it yourself.

Good luck.