2017 Filing Jointly Turbo Tax Question

[Klee 6]

Hi everyone!
My wife immigrated here from Canada in May 2017,  has her employment authorization/advance parole, and is waiting on her AOS. We got married in the following July.

 

I've been doing a bunch of research about how we should file for taxes this year and I think I understand the gist of it: 

- We have to file our taxes married + jointly, and we have to declare my wife's income from even before she immigrated. 

 

My question is, is it possible to use Turbo Tax to do this? Has anybody been successful at this? Turbo Tax mentions having to print out and mail it in, but will I get a form where I can input my wife's T4  equivalent of W2) information? 

 

Should I just pay Turbo Tax and ask them these questions directly?

 

Thanks so much!

Edited March 10, 2018 by Klee

[geowrian 22,337]

You don’t have to file MFJ. You can do MFS. Typicallly MFJ provides a lower tax liability, but you can run both and see.

 

I used TurboTax myself this year. That said, you cannot eFile as you must provide an election statement to have her treated as a resident for federa income tax purposes.

 

Her income can be listed as-is. No need to provide evidence of it during filing...but hold on to it in case they audit for any reason still (just like any tax documentation). You can exclude up to ~$100k in foreign income via the FEIE, and potentially claim the Foreign Tax Credit as well to exclude most to all of her foreign income.

[Crazy Cat 41,886]

31 minutes ago, Klee said:

Hi everyone!
My wife immigrated here from Canada in May 2017,  has her employment authorization/advance parole, and is waiting on her AOS. We got married in the following July.

 

I've been doing a bunch of research about how we should file for taxes this year and I think I understand the gist of it: 

- We have to file our taxes married + jointly, and we have to declare my wife's income from even before she immigrated. 

 

My question is, is it possible to use Turbo Tax to do this? Has anybody been successful at this? Turbo Tax mentions having to print out and mail it in, but will I get a form where I can input my wife's T4  equivalent of W2) information? 

 

Should I just pay Turbo Tax and ask them these questions directly?

 

Thanks so much!

1.  You do not have to file jointly.  In some cases, it better to file MFS. 

You also have FBAR and the other reporting forms to consider.  Failure to comply with foreign income, foreign bank accounts, and foreign assets reporting can unpleasant,  I have read.

I chose to hire an accountant to handle it this year.......next year, I will do it.

[Klee 6]

22 minutes ago, missileman said:

1.  You do not have to file jointly.  In some cases, it better to file MFS. 

You also have FBAR and the other reporting forms to consider.  Failure to comply with foreign income, foreign bank accounts, and foreign assets reporting can unpleasant,  I have read.

I chose to hire an accountant to handle it this year.......next year, I will do it.

 

I appreciate your help and the other poster's help. She was working part-time as a student for minimum wage before she left and made only $10k that year. I'm not too familiar with FBAR, would that apply here?

[Klee 6]

25 minutes ago, geowrian said:

You don’t have to file MFJ. You can do MFS. Typicallly MFJ provides a lower tax liability, but you can run both and see.

 

I used TurboTax myself this year. That said, you cannot eFile as you must provide an election statement to have her treated as a resident for federa income tax purposes.

 

Her income can be listed as-is. No need to provide evidence of it during filing...but hold on to it in case they audit for any reason still (just like any tax documentation). You can exclude up to ~$100k in foreign income via the FEIE, and potentially claim the Foreign Tax Credit as well to exclude most to all of her foreign income.

Got you, it seems MFJ might be the easiest and give us the most.

I read something online about filing for an exemption for her foreign income? Does that sound right?

[geowrian 22,337]

12 minutes ago, Klee said:

Got you, it seems MFJ might be the easiest and give us the most.

I read something online about filing for an exemption for her foreign income? Does that sound right?

In most cases, yes. It saves me thousands of dollars this year actually.

 

Yes. That’s the FEIE and/or Foreign Tax Credit. TurboTax can walk you through it, or you can fill it out yourself. I could have done it myself, but It was reassuring to just have the forms filled out by them. YMMV.

[Pee&Eee 70]

I think you can do it yourself. Just download the forms and fill them out. We did ours ourselves and we have received our return and we filed as MFJ. It will help during removing of conditions, I guess.

Edited March 10, 2018 by PrisEri

[Crazy Cat 41,886]

38 minutes ago, Klee said:

I appreciate your help and the other poster's help. She was working part-time as a student for minimum wage before she left and made only $10k that year. I'm not too familiar with FBAR, would that apply here?

FBAR is foreign Bank Account Reporting.  It is actually separate from Tax reporting.  In past years, the deadline was in June or July.  Now, they have made the deadline for filing April 15th.  There are specific thresholds for having to report......and it is electronically filed to another gov agency....

[bad4tatt 168]

2 hours ago, Klee said:

Hi everyone!
My wife immigrated here from Canada in May 2017,  has her employment authorization/advance parole, and is waiting on her AOS. We got married in the following July.

 

I've been doing a bunch of research about how we should file for taxes this year and I think I understand the gist of it: 

- We have to file our taxes married + jointly, and we have to declare my wife's income from even before she immigrated. 

 

My question is, is it possible to use Turbo Tax to do this? Has anybody been successful at this? Turbo Tax mentions having to print out and mail it in, but will I get a form where I can input my wife's T4  equivalent of W2) information? 

 

Should I just pay Turbo Tax and ask them these questions directly?

 

Thanks so much!

I am from Canada and awaiting my AOS. We filed married filing separately for several reasons but mostly because Canada had already taxed me on some of my money and it was cleaner for me to do it that way. My husband still got a bit of a tax break because I did not have US SOURCE income.

 

 As long as she is a NRA she does not have to report her Canadian bank accounts but if you file jointly she does.

[Klee 6]

14 minutes ago, bad4tatt said:

I am from Canada and awaiting my AOS. We filed married filing separately for several reasons but mostly because Canada had already taxed me on some of my money and it was cleaner for me to do it that way. My husband still got a bit of a tax break because I did not have US SOURCE income.

 

 As long as she is a NRA she does not have to report her Canadian bank accounts but if you file jointly she does.

1

Oh, interesting. I'm still a little confused about whether or not she is a NRA. She was in 2017 from May 9th to December 31st 2017. I believe since she was here for that long in 2017 (236 days) she would be considered a resident alien. 

That makes it more complicated doesn't it?

[geowrian 22,337]

4 minutes ago, Klee said:

Oh, interesting. I'm still a little confused about whether or not she is a NRA. She was in 2017 from May 9th to December 31st 2017. I believe since she was here for that long in 2017 (236 days) she would be considered a resident alien. 

That makes it more complicated doesn't it?

As a spouse of a USC or LPR, she is eligible to be treated as an NRA or RA. That's where the election statement comes into play.

See this: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-alien-spouse

Edited March 10, 2018 by geowrian

[Klee 6]

12 minutes ago, geowrian said:

As a spouse of a USC or LPR, she is eligible to be treated as an NRA or RA. That's where the election statement comes into play.

Ahhh. So based on that and what I've read elsewhere, it's probably easiest to file separately and personally claim her as an exemption. What is the election statement? I haven't read anything about that.  Nevermind figured out this part haha

 

Looks like I might have to file FBAR as well since she had over $10k USD in her account during 2017. Seriously considering going through H&R Block or something lol

Edited March 10, 2018 by Klee

[geowrian 22,337]

2 minutes ago, Klee said:

Ahhh. So based on that and what I've read elsewhere, it's probably easiest to file separately and personally claim her as an exemption. What is the election statement? I haven't read anything about that.

I edited the prior post to include what to do for the election statement. That's basically the reason you can't eFile with MFJ, too.

 

I suggest running both numbers and finding out if it's worth it. For my wife and I, it was a few thousands of dollars difference, which made it a no-brained to do MFJ even if it was slightly more work.

[bad4tatt 168]

14 hours ago, Klee said:

Oh, interesting. I'm still a little confused about whether or not she is a NRA. She was in 2017 from May 9th to December 31st 2017. I believe since she was here for that long in 2017 (236 days) she would be considered a resident alien. 

That makes it more complicated doesn't it?

She is considered a NRA if she has no greencard but if you file Married Jointly she will be considered a resident. I myself have been here since 2016 but still waiting for my GC and I am still considered a factual resident of Canada.

[Crazy Cat 41,886]

44 minutes ago, bad4tatt said:

I myself have been here since 2016 but still waiting for my GC and I am still considered a factual resident of Canada.

Not true......i suggest you consult a tax professional.