AOS November 2016 Filers

[p-ana 933]

7 minutes ago, californiabear said:

As far as I remember I don't need an EAD card when I have the GreenCard (which is in the making) and I got approved for my I 485. 

 

But it yeah I will wait until I get the GC and walk to the SSA after that to show them and to get my restrictions removed. 

 

If you have the green card, yes, the ead is no longer needed and you can go to the ssa office to get the restrictions removed.

[angie33 10]

2 hours ago, Suss&Camm said:

Well, if you're not required to file, nothing will happen... but you are losing out on potentially a lot of money as a couple. First if you're not filing then your husband will have to file married filing separately (MFS). He has to file as married as he is in fact married. This means that you only get 1 spousal exemption on the taxes. For 2016 each exemption is $4,050... so that's a considerable amount. If filing MFJ you would get $8,100 in spousal exemptions... Also you are still just filing ONE return... so I don't see the point of doing it MFS... I got a quota from a tax preparer and she wanted around $30.. that's nothing in comparison..

 

Did you have foreign income during 2016?? This can reduce your joint tax liability further since the foreign earned income exclusion allows to exclude up to around $100,000 ... you will get non-refundable tax credits that reduce your joint tax liability dollar for dollar...

 

Add to this the extra USCIS evidence of co-mingling of finances, I see absolutely NO good reason not to file..

 

 

I don't know exactly my foreign income from 2016 but thank you for the informations and the document, I'll read more of it! 

 

1 hour ago, Suss&Camm said:

Since according to IRS publication 519

"Under U.S. immigration law, a lawful permanent resident who is required to file a tax return as a resident and fails to do so may be regarded as having abandoned status and may lose permanent resident status"

Anyone reading this should just be aware of that.. If you are in fact required to file, then there are more implications of not filing-- important when we all move on in this process...

You can read the whole document here

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf

 

[californiabear 3]

1 hour ago, p-ana said:

If you have the green card, yes, the ead is no longer needed and you can go to the ssa office to get the restrictions removed.

Ah perfect, that makes sense. Also just got the message that the card is in the mail. So I will do that later this week. How long does it take to remove the restrictions? Do you know?

[clauandgio 22]

4 hours ago, engelsol said:

Another question... So the worldwide income.... what about if I was self employed in my country... so informal jobs...that usually the one that pay took of the taxes... so I did not reporting myself...   HOW to do that?  Just to put a cold number on the form? Asumming I wont be taxed here... as I dont have income here

 

4 hours ago, engelsol said:

I have nothing on paper from there... it was all informal...So I guess I will have to put a cold number for the income I got until I entered the country here.

 

4 hours ago, Suss&Camm said:

You will still have to estimate it over the time it was earned... If you were payed monthly then average over month.. if weekly then over week... You can't average over the whole year. I'm assuming you weren't payed in one big lump sum

 

To all of you worrying about the taxes...

 

So I was reading in the morning about the taxes for us in the IRS page...then I looked up some info in google and everything pointed out what it's said here: We have to sign a statement requesting to be treated as a US resident for tax purposes and add the income we made worldwide. 

 

Anyway, I went to Walmart and found the Jackson Hewitt tax service "booth". I talked to the manager about our case...she explained to me that it wasn't necessary for me to add my income because then the IRS would take taxes of what I made in my home country (which my gov already took everything and they don't return a cent). She explained and sounded reasonable. I explained my situation...that I arrived last year, got married in July, and now I am out of status adjusting my status and I do have a SSN. She told me that there was an option where I could file as a "US resident for tax purposes" (what I have read everywhere) but she said that it wasn't the best option (I would have to give taxes of what I made in my country)...so it seems like she knows what she is doing. She said that filing as married and jointly was enough. Sorry for my English haha she said a lot of things that made sense but I don't remember now.

 

Long story short, according to her, we don't have to do what all the internet says we should do. 

PS: She was extremely nice! 

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

16 minutes ago, clauandgio said:

 

 

 

To all of you worrying about the taxes...

 

So I was reading in the morning about the taxes for us in the IRS page...then I looked up some info in google and everything pointed out what it's said here: We have to sign a statement requesting to be treated as a US resident for tax purposes and add the income we made worldwide. 

 

Anyway, I went to Walmart and found the Jackson Hewitt tax service "booth". I talked to the manager about our case...she explained to me that it wasn't necessary for me to add my income because then the IRS would take taxes of what I made in my home country (which my gov already took everything and they don't return a cent). She explained and sounded reasonable. I explained my situation...that I arrived last year, got married in July, and now I am out of status adjusting my status and I do have a SSN. She told me that there was an option where I could file as a "US resident for tax purposes" (what I have read everywhere) but she said that it wasn't the best option (I would have to give taxes of what I made in my country)...so it seems like she knows what she is doing. She said that filing as married and jointly was enough. Sorry for my English haha she said a lot of things that made sense but I don't remember now.

 

Long story short, according to her, we don't have to do what all the internet says we should do. 

PS: She was extremely nice! 

No... You will not be taxed double... there are tax treaties in place to prevent this. If you have already payed taxes in your country the US will not double tax this. Especially if the taxes in your home country is higher than the US tax...(for me it's much higher)..

 

I'm sorry to say, she might have been really nice, but she is wrong. 100% The tax credits and FEIE way out-weigh any taxes that you might be considered to owe here. You can never be considered to owe more than the difference between what you payed in that country and what you would have payed on the same amount in the US. 

 

edit: most tax preparers are NOT familiar with the special circumstances and the complex tax code for immigrants. I would suggest get the advice from an expert in this field specifically. Also, you can ask many VJ'ers who have gone through this. That is wrong information and it makes me angry that ppl that don't know misguide ppl rather than saying they don't know. (not you! her ofc!)

Edited January 24, 2017 by Suss&Camm

[clauandgio 22]

1 minute ago, Suss&Camm said:

No... You will not be taxed double... there are tax treaties in place to prevent this. If you have already payed taxes in your country the US will not double tax this. Especially if the taxes in your home country is higher than the US tax...(for me it's much higher)..

 

I'm sorry to say, she might have been really nice, but she is wrong. 100% The tax credits and FEIE way out-weigh amy taxes that you might be considered to owe here. You can never be considered to owe more than the difference between what you payed in that country and the what you would have payed on the same amount in the US. 

I am still confused about what to do  So, I probably made less than $3k last year in my home country...do I still have to do the whole thing? Can I fill jointly without having to ask to be treated as a resident? I was reading in the IRS and says this "Generally, neither you nor your spouse can claim tax treaty benefits as a resident of a foreign country for a tax year for which the choice is in effect. However, the exception to the saving clause of a particular tax treaty might allow a resident alien to claim a tax treaty benefit on certain specified income". I am even more confused. lol #HALPP

[clauandgio 22]

34 minutes ago, Suss&Camm said:

No... You will not be taxed double... there are tax treaties in place to prevent this. If you have already payed taxes in your country the US will not double tax this. Especially if the taxes in your home country is higher than the US tax...(for me it's much higher)..

 

I'm sorry to say, she might have been really nice, but she is wrong. 100% The tax credits and FEIE way out-weigh any taxes that you might be considered to owe here. You can never be considered to owe more than the difference between what you payed in that country and what you would have payed on the same amount in the US. 

 

edit: most tax preparers are NOT familiar with the special circumstances and the complex tax code for immigrants. I would suggest get the advice from an expert in this field specifically. Also, you can ask many VJ'ers who have gone through this. That is wrong information and it makes me angry that ppl that don't know misguide ppl rather than saying they don't know. (not you! her ofc!)

I knowww. I found on TurboTax:
If your spouse is a nonresident alien, you have two options: 
• Treat your spouse as a resident alien for tax purposes. If you choose this option, you can file a joint tax return with your spouse. You will get the exemption for your spouse, but all your spouse's worldwide income will be taxed by the United States. 
• Treat your spouse as a nonresident alien for tax purposes. If you choose this option, you cannot file a joint tax return. You must file with a status of "married filing separately." You may still be able to claim an exemption for your spouse, but only if that spouse has no income from U.S. sources and cannot be claimed as a dependent on anyone else's tax return.

 

I promise this is my last post about taxes in this forum lol but because you mentioned that, I have to ask you how is that I can prevent the IRS to re-tax me? 

Thank you so much for your help!

[MariaR323 199]

2 hours ago, clauandgio said:

I am still confused about what to do  So, I probably made less than $3k last year in my home country...do I still have to do the whole thing? Can I fill jointly without having to ask to be treated as a resident? I was reading in the IRS and says this "Generally, neither you nor your spouse can claim tax treaty benefits as a resident of a foreign country for a tax year for which the choice is in effect. However, the exception to the saving clause of a particular tax treaty might allow a resident alien to claim a tax treaty benefit on certain specified income". I am even more confused. lol #HALPP

 

1 hour ago, clauandgio said:

I knowww. I found on TurboTax:
If your spouse is a nonresident alien, you have two options: 
• Treat your spouse as a resident alien for tax purposes. If you choose this option, you can file a joint tax return with your spouse. You will get the exemption for your spouse, but all your spouse's worldwide income will be taxed by the United States. 
• Treat your spouse as a nonresident alien for tax purposes. If you choose this option, you cannot file a joint tax return. You must file with a status of "married filing separately." You may still be able to claim an exemption for your spouse, but only if that spouse has no income from U.S. sources and cannot be claimed as a dependent on anyone else's tax return.

 

I promise this is my last post about taxes in this forum lol but because you mentioned that, I have to ask you how is that I can prevent the IRS to re-tax me? 

Thank you so much for your help!

I'd like to chime in here... if you don't mind...

 

The lady at the Walmart booth gave you wrong information - not reporting worldwide income would be illegal and against tax law. Now, having said that, I'm not the tax police or anything like that but I would assume you'd want to do things right. One thing to think about is how not reporting the income would look against any other document you've submitted with info that might have indicated you worked in 2016.

 

Moving along though, I totally recommend for you to file MFJ with your husband and doing the election statement. Reason being (and not knowing what your husband's income looks like) but even so, if you only made about $3k in your foreign country, I highly doubt it will have a major effect on the bottom line. Think about it this way... you'd be getting the benefit of filing joint (two people) with only one income per say. It's the most favorable status for you two.

 

Now, you can choose to take the foreign earned income exclusion or not. Since it's a small amount of foreign income, I doubt it will affect much and you save the hassle of the extra work for the Form 2555 for the exclusion.

 

Choosing the MFJ status with the election statement you wouldn't be able to e-File and the return must be printed and sent by mail. However, I can almost bet money you'd benefit from it and the extra wait time far outweighs the MFS status your husband would file as without you.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Maria

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

40 minutes ago, MariaR323 said:

 

I'd like to chime in here... if you don't mind...

 

The lady at the Walmart booth gave you wrong information - not reporting worldwide income would be illegal and against tax law. Now, having said that, I'm not the tax police or anything like that but I would assume you'd want to do things right. One thing to think about is how not reporting the income would look against any other document you've submitted with info that might have indicated you worked in 2016.

 

Moving along though, I totally recommend for you to file MFJ with your husband and doing the election statement. Reason being (and not knowing what your husband's income looks like) but even so, if you only made about $3k in your foreign country, I highly doubt it will have a major effect on the bottom line. Think about it this way... you'd be getting the benefit of filing joint (two people) with only one income per say. It's the most favorable status for you two.

 

Now, you can choose to take the foreign earned income exclusion or not. Since it's a small amount of foreign income, I doubt it will affect much and you save the hassle of the extra work for the Form 2555 for the exclusion.

 

Choosing the MFJ status with the election statement you wouldn't be able to e-File and the return must be printed and sent by mail. However, I can almost bet money you'd benefit from it and the extra wait time far outweighs the MFS status your husband would file as without you.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Maria

Thank you Maria.. it's really tricky to explain all the ins and outs of this, and you have helped me many times to get a grasp on it all lol

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

2 hours ago, clauandgio said:

I knowww. I found on TurboTax:
If your spouse is a nonresident alien, you have two options: 
• Treat your spouse as a resident alien for tax purposes. If you choose this option, you can file a joint tax return with your spouse. You will get the exemption for your spouse, but all your spouse's worldwide income will be taxed by the United States. 
• Treat your spouse as a nonresident alien for tax purposes. If you choose this option, you cannot file a joint tax return. You must file with a status of "married filing separately." You may still be able to claim an exemption for your spouse, but only if that spouse has no income from U.S. sources and cannot be claimed as a dependent on anyone else's tax return.

 

I promise this is my last post about taxes in this forum lol but because you mentioned that, I have to ask you how is that I can prevent the IRS to re-tax me? 

Thank you so much for your help!

You will put your whole foreign earned income as an exclusion on your joint income. So whatever you you made will be excluded from what you as a couple report as your joint income to be taxed for. Overly-simplified, if he makes $30,000 and you made $3,000 reported as FEI the exclusion makes it so you as a couple only report $27,000 as your total income, effectively also reducing the amount of taxes you will jointly pay. Of course there are also other deductions/exemptions and so forth that might apply to you specifically...but that's how it works in theory.

 

You write this all down on the form Maria mentioned and then transfer the combined total income to the tax form 1040.. where you then continue to calculate your joint taxes..

This will mean at the end of things that your husband will most likely have payed taxes through withholdings that your FEI will help balance for the two of you and you will get back a tax return later in the year with this money.

 

This was very roughly put and as I have understood it. Lol we need to help eachother post as much as you need I will! 

 

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

Baahhh 
@clauandgio I meant to say that the $3,000 is excluded from your combined  $33,000...  so effectively not paying taxes on your part of the income... the part that will give you a bigger return is the double exemption or other deductions...that you can make  ...

I hope I didn't manage to make it too messy  

I swear the numbers and letters are spinning around in my head now..

[Dublindave 52]

52 minutes ago, Suss&Camm said:

You will put your whole foreign earned income as an exclusion on your joint income. So whatever you you made will be excluded from what you as a couple report as your joint income to be taxed for. Overly-simplified, if he makes $30,000 and you made $3,000 reported as FEI the exclusion makes it so you as a couple only report $27,000 as your total income, effectively also reducing the amount of taxes you will jointly pay. Of course there are also other deductions/exemptions and so forth that might apply to you specifically...but that's how it works in theory.

 

You write this all down on the form Maria mentioned and then transfer the combined total income to the tax form 1040.. where you then continue to calculate your joint taxes..

This will mean at the end of things that your husband will most likely have payed taxes through withholdings that your FEI will help balance for the two of you and you will get back a tax return later in the year with this money.

 

This was very roughly put and as I have understood it. Lol we need to help eachother post as much as you need I will! 

 

 

 

 

Sorry to hijack this thread, but if Im reading this correctly. Me as an Irish citizen moving to the US in November to get married in December, currently adjusting status. Fill out form 2555 and attach it to the 1040 and all my income earned while living in Ireland will be excluded, I wont pay any taxes on it?

 

Im not giving the US government money for a job I worked at while living in my own country. I have very big problem with doing that.

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

10 minutes ago, Dublindave said:

 

 

 

Sorry to hijack this thread, but if Im reading this correctly. Me as an Irish citizen moving to the US in November to get married in December, currently adjusting status. Fill out form 2555 and attach it to the 1040 and all my income earned while living in Ireland will be excluded, I wont pay any taxes on it?

 

Im not giving the US government money for a job I worked at while living in my own country. I have very big problem with doing that.

Correct you won't.... at the moment I'm confused as to the exact filling out of the forms... I tried giving a simple example lol but as you see I screwed up the explanation hahaha

It becomes clear what number goes were when you fill out the forms.... but the end point is YES it will be excluded... and therfore not taxed...

 

Check out the form 2555, you will qualify under the physical presence test...

Oh and ofc you have to opt to treat you as a tax payer for the whole tax year in order to file MFJ and claim this exclusion.

Edited January 24, 2017 by Suss&Camm

[clauandgio 22]

7 hours ago, MariaR323 said:

 

I'd like to chime in here... if you don't mind...

 

The lady at the Walmart booth gave you wrong information - not reporting worldwide income would be illegal and against tax law. Now, having said that, I'm not the tax police or anything like that but I would assume you'd want to do things right. One thing to think about is how not reporting the income would look against any other document you've submitted with info that might have indicated you worked in 2016.

 

Moving along though, I totally recommend for you to file MFJ with your husband and doing the election statement. Reason being (and not knowing what your husband's income looks like) but even so, if you only made about $3k in your foreign country, I highly doubt it will have a major effect on the bottom line. Think about it this way... you'd be getting the benefit of filing joint (two people) with only one income per say. It's the most favorable status for you two.

 

Now, you can choose to take the foreign earned income exclusion or not. Since it's a small amount of foreign income, I doubt it will affect much and you save the hassle of the extra work for the Form 2555 for the exclusion.

 

Choosing the MFJ status with the election statement you wouldn't be able to e-File and the return must be printed and sent by mail. However, I can almost bet money you'd benefit from it and the extra wait time far outweighs the MFS status your husband would file as without you.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Maria

 

5 hours ago, Suss&Camm said:

Baahhh 
@clauandgio I meant to say that the $3,000 is excluded from your combined  $33,000...  so effectively not paying taxes on your part of the income... the part that will give you a bigger return is the double exemption or other deductions...that you can make  ...

I hope I didn't manage to make it too messy  

I swear the numbers and letters are spinning around in my head now..

Thanks for both of you <3 you are angles here  judging by the way both of you describe this...it doesn't seem impossible anymore to file the taxes myself without paying someone else to do it. I will check the forms and see how it goes. Thanks for your help! I will read your replies again and again  

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

Just spent about 4 hrs filling out our taxes lol 

Using the 2555ez to fill out my total earned income (gross income).

Got the dollar conversion from a site referred to on the irs website.

http://www.x-rates.com/average/?from=USD&to=SEK&amount=1&year=2016

I used the average conversion over the 11 months which I received wages. Filled in the physical presence portion qualifying months as the 12 months from when I arrived here and 12 months back. This was very straight forward. This amount was transferred to the joint 1040 (added to my husbands income on line 7) and writing "2555EZ" ($xx,xxx.xx) on line 21 other income. Then subtracting this from line 7 and putting this number as Total income. THE WHOLE amount is therefore excluded.

 

After filling in the standard deduction fields and the exemption fields (and any other fields that apply to you) you can then get your Taxable income on line 43.

After that you have to figure the taxes using "worksheet for foreign income" from the instructions, and the tax tables as instructed there. 

 

It was a lot of reading but it was doable...