Am I really gong to get double taxed?

[Cardinal6669 10]

Seems like straight up theft that the income I earned in Australia before I even immigrated to the U.S is going to be taxed AGAIN by a country that has no right to tax me just because I spent more tan 180 days in the U.S in 2015. I wasn't even working in the U.S until 3-4 weeks ago when I finally got my EAD.

I did not work in the U.S during 2015.

Am I really about to be double taxed? ....

[Dal&Rose 45]

Foreign income if under a certain amount of USD is excluded. I believe it's 90K USD. You must report it, but you shouldn't be taxed on it if under the limit, if over, you should only be taxed for the amount over (I could be wrong about this, please do further research.)

[MariaR323 199]

There's several posts in here talking about this same issue - there's even a pinned thread that I started as well. Take a few minutes to do a quick google search and you'll find you are not subject to double taxation.

For tax purposes, if you entered the U.S. in 2015 (before July 1st) then you are considered a dual-status alien: NonResident Alien (NRA) for the time before U.S. entry and Resident Alien (RA) from your date of entry. If you had no U.S. source income in 2015, you are not required to file a tax return.

If you WANT to file a tax return with your, I presume spouse, that's a different story. I'm assuming you married your petitioner in 2015 because your timeline isn't filled in after the U.S. entry.

Either way, if you want to file a return with your spouse as MFJ, there is an option to exclude the would-be tax on the foreign income. Look up info on the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, it's Form 2555. Also, this requires an election statement asking to be treated as a U.S. Resident for tax purposes for the tax year in question.

[Cardinal6669 10]

Foreign income if under a certain amount of USD is excluded. I believe it's 90K USD. You must report it, but you shouldn't be taxed on it if under the limit, if over, you should only be taxed for the amount over (I could be wrong about this, please do further research.)

I only earned like 13k, as I did not work that entire year in Australia and it was only a part time low end kind of job while I was waiting to move to America.

So that means I will not be taxed again?

I am going to go see an accountant tomorrow to help me anyway.

[Cardinal6669 10]

There's several posts in here talking about this same issue - there's even a pinned thread that I started as well. Take a few minutes to do a quick google search and you'll find you are not subject to double taxation.

For tax purposes, if you entered the U.S. in 2015 (before July 1st) then you are considered a dual-status alien: NonResident Alien (NRA) for the time before U.S. entry and Resident Alien (RA) from your date of entry. If you had no U.S. source income in 2015, you are not required to file a tax return.

If you WANT to file a tax return with your, I presume spouse, that's a different story. I'm assuming you married your petitioner in 2015 because your timeline isn't filled in after the U.S. entry.

Either way, if you want to file a return with your spouse as MFJ, there is an option to exclude the would-be tax on the foreign income. Look up info on the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, it's Form 2555. Also, this requires an election statement asking to be treated as a U.S. Resident for tax purposes for the tax year in question.

Yes we married, I should update my timeline.

I arrived in June of 2015 and married the same month.

Married filing single would be the easiest option for my wife if I did not want to end up submitting anything. But married filing jointly offers tax breaks or something right?

She only earns around 32k a year a we have no kids. Do you think it would be worth it to file jointly? Or too much trouble?

[MariaR323 199]

Correct, MFJ is the most favorable tax filing status because it has the lowest tax liability.

So basically what that means is that... assuming your wife worked and earned 32k a year and had taxes withheld at the single rate with 0 or 1 exemption... if you file MFJ and exlude the tax on your foreign income... you're probably looking at a very nice refund.

It's not too much trouble... to sum it up you basically just need to file MFJ like any married couple would, but you include an election statement to treat you as a resident alien for tax purposes... here's a copy of the election statement I worked up, feel free to use it IRC Section 6013g NRA Election for RA.pdf

To exclude the foreign income, you fill out Form 2555.

Buy a copy of TurboTax (download version) and it will guide you through with an interview-type setup. Foreign Income would be "other income".

Nich-Nick is a regular around here too and she has responded to a good number of posts with detailed steps on how to get turbotax to correctly fill out Form 2555 for you. Look around the posts here and you'll find everything you need to do this yourself even!

[Cardinal6669 10]

Correct, MFJ is the most favorable tax filing status because it has the lowest tax liability.

So basically what that means is that... assuming your wife worked and earned 32k a year and had taxes withheld at the single rate with 0 or 1 exemption... if you file MFJ and exlude the tax on your foreign income... you're probably looking at a very nice refund.

It's not too much trouble... to sum it up you basically just need to file MFJ like any married couple would, but you include an election statement to treat you as a resident alien for tax purposes... here's a copy of the election statement I worked up, feel free to use it IRC Section 6013g NRA Election for RA.pdf

To exclude the foreign income, you fill out Form 2555.

Buy a copy of TurboTax (download version) and it will guide you through with an interview-type setup. Foreign Income would be "other income".

Nich-Nick is a regular around here too and she has responded to a good number of posts with detailed steps on how to get turbotax to correctly fill out Form 2555 for you. Look around the posts here and you'll find everything you need to do this yourself even!

Awesome thank you.

1 more question. Since I've never been married before, when you file as MFJ, do you only send in one tax return with both of our details on it?

Or do we both send in a tax return?

[Cardinal6669 10]

Oh and which version of turbotax, the free version?

[MariaR323 199]

Awesome thank you.

1 more question. Since I've never been married before, when you file as MFJ, do you only send in one tax return with both of our details on it?

Or do we both send in a tax return?

One tax return filing as MFJ where both of your personal data is shown.

Oh and which version of turbotax, the free version?

I don't think the free version will suffice, not 100% sure, but I would recommend the Deluxe version.

[rutabaga 209]

FYI, I bought a download version of TurboTax a couple of weeks ago and it was a lot cheaper on Amazon than on Intuit's website.

[t1g3rtoes 1]

you'll be pleased to know that government, in general, finds as many creative ways as possible to screw you under the pretext of offering you a "service." taxation is theft, whether it's from one country or two (in your case, it should be "just" one). want to go somewhere? great, let's tax that ticket sale. want to buy something? great, let's have a sales tax. want to earn something? great, don't mind if we steal a piece of that, thanks. want to invest the money you earned after we taxed it? if that becomes worth anything, we'll tax that too. want to move somewhere? great, pay a visa fee, a service fee, an application fee, etc etc etc and wait while we restrict you until it's our pleasure to let you move freely. welcome to america, cardinal. you got here just in time for the donald trump and hillary clinton era, so if you think it's stupid now, give it a year and see what new heights we might achieve!

[Dal&Rose 45]

I used the downloaded version. I got it from Amazon. This way you can actually run a MFJ or MFS to see the difference in pay. It also gives you more options for the less common areas, and that includes the Form 2555 (I believe.) I used the advice from Nich-Nick and was able to do my own taxes (the first time ever!) and include my husband's foreign income, even though he's still in the UK. I am applying for ITIN, which you won't have that detail to worry about.

I will say the difference of including my husband's income, and then excluding it, from filing on my own, is roughly 1500. So I'll take the bit of extra work on my part and longer wait time to get taxes return. There are several posts on exactly how to do the foreign income exclusion in this forum in the past few weeks. Read up and learn...and profit from getting some money back!