LPR Filing taxes for 2016 question

b0rn2win · January 25, 2017

Hello everyone, here is our situation. I arrived here in America back in 2015 on J1 visa. Got married to my husband same year. We filed a joint tax return in 2016 even though our income was low and we didnt have to file taxes. I got my green card in November 2016 same month i started working. So after November I am considered as a LPR. My husband is a us citizen just to clear that out. So the problem is that we didnt have an insurance during 2016. He switched jobs during the summer and for 4 months he has an insurance. But now the company that we are both working for we have to be employed for a year before our insurance kick in. So my question is since i was a non resident for most of the year and didnt work do i have to pay penalties for not having a health insurance. And with just my husband working during the year the money were tight and we couldnt afford to buy an insurance. I am sorry that its a long post and I might get you confused about our situation. Is there any exemption that we may qualify for? Can we file the way we did last year MFJ using turbotax? Last year we didnt have any problems. Please help, because its very confusing to me. Thank you

MariaR323 · January 25, 2017

Hi there, a couple things to keep in mind...

Immigration status should not be confused with status for tax purposes. Based on your details, you said you have been in the U.S. since 2015. Which means, you've been physically present and living in the U.S. for the entire year 2016 - this makes you a resident for tax purposes because you satisfy the physical presence test. With that said, you wouldn't qualify for an exemption based on residency status.

It does sound like you could file MFJ (I don't see any details as to why you wouldn't be able to). As far as any other exemption for the health care penalty, a well versed tax preparer can go over all that with you at preparation time and see if you might qualify for another (hardship) exemption maybe.

Maria