First tax return as a permanent resident, married to US Citizen, how best to file?

[m3rrick 1]

This is the first year I'll be preparing tax information and I'm a little confused as to how my wife and I should file.

- I'm a UK citizen, my wife is a US citizen

- We married in Feb 2015

- I continued living and working in the UK until I completed the visa process and became a permanent resident. I moved to the US a few days later, at the end of January 2016.

Can we file as married, filing jointly? From what I have read, I understand that I was a non-resident alien for the first few weeks of January. I believe this means that we can file as MFJ, but we could not file electronically as I need to delcare, by way of a separate letter that I provide with the tax return, that I wish to be treated as a resident alien for the entire tax year. Is that correct?

Thanks in advance! This site has been a great source of information during our time working on the immigration process!

[POA 178]

Yes you can file married jointly. We were on a similar but not the same situation then since I moved here in March 2014 and trying to file jointly for Tax year 2013. We were able to do it. On our first year, we had to use h&r block as it was a little hard on turbo tax since I didn't have ssn on 2013. Then the year after, all went smoothly. However, since you have been here since January, I suggest you try filing it with Turbo tax first as it is very interactive. If you still can't figure it out, then you can go to H&R block. Though I think you will be able to file it in Turbo tax. They have some questions there about residency and all if I am not mistaken.

[MariaR323 199]

This is the first year I'll be preparing tax information and I'm a little confused as to how my wife and I should file.

- I'm a UK citizen, my wife is a US citizen

- We married in Feb 2015

- I continued living and working in the UK until I completed the visa process and became a permanent resident. I moved to the US a few days later, at the end of January 2016.

Can we file as married, filing jointly? From what I have read, I understand that I was a non-resident alien for the first few weeks of January. I believe this means that we can file as MFJ, but we could not file electronically as I need to delcare, by way of a separate letter that I provide with the tax return, that I wish to be treated as a resident alien for the entire tax year. Is that correct?

Thanks in advance! This site has been a great source of information during our time working on the immigration process!

Yes, you can file MFJ and since you arrived in the U.S. after 1/1/16 you would attach an election statement to be treated as a resident for the entire tax year 2016.

You can use TurboTax as mentioned to prepare your tax return, however, you cannot electronically file the return since you need to attach the statement to it.

If you need help and can't figure it out via TurboTax, I would suggest looking for an independent tax preparer; H&R Block charges way too much and often times the preparers are not that knowledgeable (especially with foreign income).

[m3rrick 1]

thank you both! This has been really helpful.