Married File Jointly vs. Head of Household

[HeartG 0]

Hi,

 

Background: Husband is USC. Wife is non-resident alien and have never been to the US. They have been married for 3 years but the husband has always filed as Head of Household.

 

Question: Is it better to file as married file jointly or as head of household?

 

I read somewhere that the standard deduction for MFJ in 2017 is $12,350 while the HOH is $9,350, but it doesn't apply when the spouse is a non-resident alien.

 

Thanks,

 

Heart

[Obaid 8]

Does mfj does not apply to non resident spouse. I am on same situation I did my taxes hoh

[MariaR323 199]

You'd have to elect (via election statement) to treat the nonresident alien spouse as a resident alien for tax purposes. This yields the most favorable tax filing status - MFJ - with the lowest tax liability (as is often the case in most situations).

[HeartG 0]

Thank you for both of your responses.

 

@MariaR323How do you do the election? I checked the IRS website but I can't seem to find the information that I'm looking for. Thanks.

[MariaR323 199]

11 minutes ago, HeartG said:

Thank you for both of your responses.

 

@MariaR323How do you do the election? I checked the IRS website but I can't seem to find the information that I'm looking for. Thanks.

Look at my pinned post in this section, right at the top. There's a link to a PDF that I uploaded as an example of the election statement.

[HeartG 0]

Thanks!