I-864 for Self-Employed person (merged)

[AngieJ 3]

Hello everybody! Really need advice please!!

Me ( beneficiary) and my husband ( USC) are planning to do AOS. He is a long term ebay power seller for a living ( he has been doing it for the last 20 years). So he is considered as Self Employed. Recently we realized that for self empl sponsors only NET Income counts, not gross income. He files 1040 form. So here is a problem. In 2016 he made $60,000 gross, but after deductions only around $12,000 is left ( profit). The same year he won jackpot at the casino ( $17,000).  So on line 22 its says $29,000 total income. In 2015 he made $59,000 gross and only $11,900 left after deductions as a profit on line 22. And in 2014 the same. So this year he is planning not to be too agressive with his deductions and show his NET income $22,000 -$25000 ( lline 22). Then and only then we will do my AOS. We dont have any co sponsors.  He does his taxes with the tax guy at the office. He doesnt have any business licence. Just ebay store with huge experience and big amount of sales. 

Now I have a questions.

Will it be enough to submit 2017 tax returns with all the schedules plus IRS transcripts? OR should we submit 2016 and 2015 also? And what evidence we need to include to show he can make that much? How to put his current income if we dont really know how much its gonna be in the end of the year?:/  Casino winning is not an income at all? He paid taxes on it also. 

He doesnt keep his money at the bank, but we can put some in bank account. He also can write a letter about what he exactly does at his job. We also keep tracking how much he made every month. If we knew early on, he would not deduct as much and we probably would have a good looking tax returns :/ 

i myself do not have any assets or income. 

Please, I will appreciate your time and effort of anybody can help with some advices! 

Edited August 26, 2017 by Penguin_ie

[AngieJ 3]

Hello everybody! Really need advice please!!

Me ( beneficiary) and my husband ( USC) are planning to do AOS. He is a long term ebay power seller for a living ( he has been doing it for the last 20 years). So he is considered as Self Employed. Recently we realized that for self empl sponsors only NET Income counts, not gross income. He files 1040 form. So here is a problem. In 2016 he made $60,000 gross, but after deductions only around $12,000 is left ( profit). The same year he won jackpot at the casino ( $17,000).  So on line 22 its says $29,000 total income. In 2015 he made $59,000 gross and only $11,900 left after deductions as a profit on line 22. And in 2014 the same. So this year he is planning not to be too agressive with his deductions and show his NET income $22,000 -$25000 ( lline 22). Then and only then we will do my AOS. We dont have any co sponsors.  He does his taxes with the tax guy at the office. He doesnt have any business licence. Just ebay store with huge experience and big amount of sales. 

Now I have a questions.

Will it be enough to submit 2017 tax returns with all the schedules plus IRS transcripts? OR should we submit 2016 and 2015 also? And what evidence we need to include to show he can make that much? How to put his current income if we dont really know how much its gonna be in the end of the year?:/  Casino winning is not an income at all? He paid taxes on it also. 

He doesnt keep his money at the bank, but we can put some in bank account. He also can write a letter about what he exactly does at his job. We also keep tracking how much he made every month. If we knew early on, he would not deduct as much and we probably would have a good looking tax returns :/ 

i myself do not have any assets or income. 

Please, I will appreciate your time and effort of anybody can help with some advices! 

[Scandi 4,176]

My husband is self-employed too (sells via Amazon) and all we sent was the whole tax return (like 30 pages or so) we got at the time he did his taxes in 2016 (that would be 2015 years taxes). Nothing else. No one ever said anything about it, we had an interview, no RFEs and were approved just fine. 

 

You haven't filed for 2017 yet so the latest tax return for you would be 2016. Only the latest tax return is needed, but you can send for the last three years if you want to.

Edited August 25, 2017 by Scandi

[f f 725]

careful about changing the deductions to make it appear as though he is making more net. especially since his net income would be doubling. they may claim he is falsifying his taxes to make it appear as though he is making more than he actually is which could be considered fraud.

[Michael2017 368]

7 hours ago, f f said:

careful about changing the deductions to make it appear as though he is making more net. especially since his net income would be doubling. they may claim he is falsifying his taxes to make it appear as though he is making more than he actually is which could be considered fraud.

Well, IRS will love it. You can freely forget to deduct any cost you want. It is not tax fraud. It is your decision. However, for immigration purposes, they could simply not accept the income, but for that, they would need to have a very serious reason. The guy can just have a good year, it happens in business all the time. I dont think anyone would go so far to check why the profits have increased. Being charged with fraud for deducting too less costs is not reasonable or even possible in my opinion.

[AngieJ 3]

3 hours ago, Michael2017 said:

Well, IRS will love it. You can freely forget to deduct any cost you want. It is not tax fraud. It is your decision. However, for immigration purposes, they could simply not accept the income, but for that, they would need to have a very serious reason. The guy can just have a good year, it happens in business all the time. I dont think anyone would go so far to check why the profits have increased. Being charged with fraud for deducting too less costs is not reasonable or even possible in my opinion.

He will be making more this time than previous year, so he still will be deduct alot but more reasonable with it. If we would knew it a few years ago, we could make all taxes right. But we didnt worry as his gross is plenty than enough.

[AngieJ 3]

11 hours ago, Scandi said:

My husband is self-employed too (sells via Amazon) and all we sent was the whole tax return (like 30 pages or so) we got at the time he did his taxes in 2016 (that would be 2015 years taxes). Nothing else. No one ever said anything about it, we had an interview, no RFEs and were approved just fine. 

 

You haven't filed for 2017 yet so the latest tax return for you would be 2016. Only the latest tax return is needed, but you can send for the last three years if you want to.

Thank you! Can you please tell me if your husband wrote a self employed letter with explanation what he exactly does for his job? We have enough money for 2016 to show 125% but i am really worrying it wont be enough in their eyes and they will ask for co -sponsor or paypal and bank statements and explanation what he does for his job. Thank you for your help! 

 

[Scandi 4,176]

22 minutes ago, AngieJ said:

Thank you! Can you please tell me if your husband wrote a self employed letter with explanation what he exactly does for his job? We have enough money for 2016 to show 125% but i am really worrying it wont be enough in their eyes and they will ask for co -sponsor or paypal and bank statements and explanation what he does for his job. Thank you for your help! 

 

No, he only filled in and signed the i-864 and sent the full 2015 tax return that he received at his tax preparer's office at the time he filed his taxes. No letter, no bank account statements etc. It worked like a charm for us. I guess it depends a little on who your application ends up with though, seems like some people get RFEs for things others don't. Just to be on the safe side you should probably send as much as you possibly can.

[AngieJ 3]

10 minutes ago, Scandi said:

No, he only filled in and signed the i-864 and sent the full 2015 tax return that he received at his tax preparer's office at the time he filed his taxes. No letter, no bank account statements etc. It worked like a charm for us. I guess it depends a little on who your application ends up with though, seems like some people get RFEs for things others don't. Just to be on the safe side you should probably send as much as you possibly can.

Yeah I guess, thank you! Maybe somebody can tell me what we exactly need to send along with i-864 and tax returns with thanscripts. I read all the similar topics and its very different. I guess it really depends on the person who reviewing your paperwork. 

[Villanelle 4,122]

For a self employed person you need to submit the entire tax return including the schedule C. Technically that is all that is required to prove income however self-employed people typically send a letter they write themselves explaining things. The letter should state the type of work they do, how long theyve been doing it, any degrees (N/A for that type of work). Basically the person looking at the tax return has no idea what the income is from and they have to determine its stable to qualify for AOS so the letter explains things. You can also send a current profit/loss statement. I dont know if he currently tracks things as he goes but if he doesnt its not very hard to make up. Its just like the end of the year info you use to fill out the schedule C but it would be broken down monthly or weekly showing profits in and expenses. 

 

The casino winnings (congrats!) isnt going to really count because thats not a stable source of income, it was a one time payment. So while it helps bring up last years income it wont count for the 864. Now the person reviewing it may not realize the income on line on line 22(I think this is the wrong line number and you meant the total income line) but anyway if it includes casino winnings so they may deem his income for 2016 acceptable but its a long shot. They look at line 22 (schedule c line) for self employed where he only made 12k so its not enough. If you have assets you can make up the difference. Example - if you need 25k for the form and you made 12 you need 13X3 for assets so 39k in the bank/stocks/home equity.

 

If you want to wait to file until you do 2017 taxes thats fine. Only 1 year is required to file however with self-employed the more tax returns you submit showing the income is stable the better it is. Youre in an odd position because your previous years wont help show that. You may submit one year of returns and get an RFE to show the other years- And when/if you show them they wont help much.

 

Do you have anyone that can be a cosponsor? It might be a good idea to start looking for someone as a back up just incase your income gets rejected.

Edited August 26, 2017 by Damara

[AngieJ 3]

1 hour ago, Damara said:

For a self employed person you need to submit the entire tax return including the schedule C. Technically that is all that is required to prove income however self-employed people typically send a letter they write themselves explaining things. The letter should state the type of work they do, how long theyve been doing it, any degrees (N/A for that type of work). Basically the person looking at the tax return has no idea what the income is from and they have to determine its stable to qualify for AOS so the letter explains things. You can also send a current profit/loss statement. I dont know if he currently tracks things as he goes but if he doesnt its not very hard to make up. Its just like the end of the year info you use to fill out the schedule C but it would be broken down monthly or weekly showing profits in and expenses. 

 

The casino winnings (congrats!) isnt going to really count because thats not a stable source of income, it was a one time payment. So while it helps bring up last years income it wont count for the 864. Now the person reviewing it may not realize the income on line on line 22(I think this is the wrong line number and you meant the total income line) but anyway if it includes casino winnings so they may deem his income for 2016 acceptable but its a long shot. They look at line 22 (schedule c line) for self employed where he only made 12k so its not enough. If you have assets you can make up the difference. Example - if you need 25k for the form and you made 12 you need 13X3 for assets so 39k in the bank/stocks/home equity.

 

If you want to wait to file until you do 2017 taxes thats fine. Only 1 year is required to file however with self-employed the more tax returns you submit showing the income is stable the better it is. Youre in an odd position because your previous years wont help show that. You may submit one year of returns and get an RFE to show the other years- And when/if you show them they wont help much.

 

Do you have anyone that can be a cosponsor? It might be a good idea to start looking for someone as a back up just incase your income gets rejected.

Thank you! Yes we do thave trackings, its not hard to do. No, unfortunatelly we dont have a co sponsor and my husband whants to do it oh his own ( very stubborn). So i guess we better wait, make more and show we have enough even its gonna take a two years. In that case all taxes will look fine, exept the last one. Difficult situation, but not much we can do:/ sad 

[Villanelle 4,122]

You know you can also file and get your EAD and start working yourself. Your income can count. So youd submit the packet with the 864 filled out with what he has and then if you get an RFE for it submit a new one with your income as well. The worst thing that could happen is you are denied even with your income and then you are out the filing fees but its unlikely they will deny you if you answer the RFE with his income+ yours.

 

What kind of visa/status do you have right now that you are willing or able to wait 1-2 years to file. Being an illegal currently is risky. 

[databit 328]

Be prepared for a possible IRS tax audit from the numbers juggling,  and maybe a look from Homeland Security for the sudden amount of money put into the bank, which looks like the money may have come from you for a green card, or from  an illegal source. And I would think he has violated local laws by not having a business license. BTW, eBay sales are easily tracked by the IRS---http://www.denverpost.com/2008/06/06/selling-stuff-on-ebay-irs-wants-its-cut/    Good luck

[Penguin_ie 5,995]

***** two threads merged and a third without replies removed.  Please do not post more than once on an issue/ question. ******