Income Taxes

[EandH0904 1,184]

4 minutes ago, JamesT said:

Well if you've already filed single, then you really shouldn't do anything at this point.  Wait until your husband has his visa and is here in the USA, and then you can get a social security number for him.  Then file an amended return married filing jointly, and you won't even have to mess with the ITIN.

I think part of her concern is how it "looks" in Casablanca,  which is a harder consulate to get a visa through 

[JamesT 12]

Just now, EandH0904 said:

I think part of her concern is how it "looks" in Casablanca,  which is a harder consulate to get a visa through 

Yes, good point.  She is fine as far as the IRS is concerned, but it won't look so good at the interview in Casablanca if she has a 2017 tax return filed with status single.   It's not good evidence of "co-mingling of finances."

[Kristi.Ohane 0]

2 minutes ago, EandH0904 said:

I think part of her concern is how it "looks" in Casablanca,  which is a harder consulate to get a visa through 

Yes you hit the spot dead on. It’s not so much as the taxes. Just how it will look during the interview. 

 

[Crazy Cat 41,850]

2 minutes ago, Kristi.Ohane said:

Yes you hit the spot dead on. It’s not so much as the taxes. Just how it will look during the interview. 

 

Then you can easily amend to "MFS" without providing a spouse SSN or ITIN.   Just enter "NRA" for spouse SSN.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to Tax & Finances During US Immigration forum.

[DocZ 20]

3 hours ago, Kristi.Ohane said:

I have been told different things by different people. Some say I can file my taxes as single and then amend when my Husband gets here. But some say to file Married and apply for ITIN. I've had bad luck with getting someone to do the ITIN for me. And if I file married separate then I owe money. So what are some of your experiences? Has anyone had any problems? Like did it raise a red flag for you? 

 

Let me tell you about me. I'm a US Citizen, my husband is Moroccan. I petitioned him on I-130 CR1 visa. So it would help if someone can give me a peace of mind. 

Yeah, I was confused on how to file, too (except as others point out, on married file jointly vs file separately). I chose to get an ITIN for my wife, and file jointly.

I chose to this this because I owed like $11,000. If I filed separately, I would have owed a lot more (which I don't have money to pay more right now). I didn't file for an extension because, according to my accountant, even if I filed late, I should pay the expected amount by tax day, and then the interest / fees would have been a lot of money if I didn't pay on Tax day. My taxes were too complicated for me (two W2s, a 1099, some other forms, got married in 2017 and had a child abroad without a SSN yet), so I figured I would pay an accountant anyways. So, I found one that was a ITIN acceptance agent, where I could give them my wife's passport, they filled out the W-7 for the ITIN, and they returned the passport immediately (I was paranoid about losing the passport in the mail, as I have had the pain of losing a passport before, so I wanted the W7 done in person). 

 

If I was in a situation (where I was getting a refund and didn't need the money now), I would have filed separately for tax day, waited for my wife to get here and get a SSN, amend it and change it to joint, and then just got a bigger refund at a later time. 

 

[ramesesthe2nd 149]

I did married filling together. My wife is here on ESTA right now, so we just went to a local IRS certified acceptance agent and she filled for ITIN (Form W7) and sent them in with my taxes. It takes a long time with ITIN (about 10 to 12 weeks) to get a refund, but I felt it was the proper way. We also showed income my wife earned in NL in my taxes. 

 

[Devon&Julius 21]

I filed head of household. You can do this if you have a qualifying dependent that is NOT your spouse.

[O&O 330]

13 hours ago, Kristi.Ohane said:

I have filed single already. But wanting to Amend. It’s proving to be difficult. Maybe I should file married separate and when he comes Amend again and file jointly so I don’t have to owe irs 

I'm so confused with all this.. tax preparer saying one thing ..IRS n Taxation and Finance saying another thing... I could have gathered all the supporting documents for filing jointly but IRS telling me it has to be done by April 17th.. I blamed myself what I should have done is get information from IRS before filing .. also the tax preparer should have explained much better about issues like this..

[NovaSprings 89]

18 hours ago, Kristi.Ohane said:

I've had bad luck with getting someone to do the ITIN for me. 

 

Not sure if you are working with an accountant or not, but any good accountant should be able to fill out a W7 on your behalf.  Alternatively, you can fill it out...it is simple.  URL link to the form is https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw7.pdf.  One other thing to point out, assuming you receive a CR1 visa, you will need to file a ROC in 18 months after your spouse activate their visa.  For the ROC application, financial evidence is king so you will need to provide all tax returns filed during your marriage.

[NovaSprings 89]

2 hours ago, O&O said:

I'm so confused with all this.. tax preparer saying one thing ..IRS n Taxation and Finance saying another thing... I could have gathered all the supporting documents for filing jointly but IRS telling me it has to be done by April 17th.. I blamed myself what I should have done is get information from IRS before filing .. also the tax preparer should have explained much better about issues like this..

Don't blame yourself, unfortunately most US tax "professionals" are cookie cutter, only following the steps in a book (my opinion).  I have found even large US accounting firms do not have the knowledge or want to gain the knowledge to file returns that include "immigration" situations, and if you have any investments/bank accounts in your spouses home country....you can forget it!  Myself and my husband had to hire a large accounting firm in Canada to file both our US and Canadian returns properly.  It appears that foreign accounting firms know more about the US tax system then US firms (again my opinion). Don't stress, file an application for extension (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f2350.pdf)  with the IRS, that should give you enough time to get your return in order. 

[issea 43]

I have a question regarding the amended tax return. When should it be filed to IRS and consequent amended forms to the state taxation and finance department? Is it supposed to be after the tax day (April 17) or could it be right after your e-file where you find mistake?

 

I am asking so is because yesterday we just had our tax return filed as married filing jointly with help from a tax agent. My spouse sent a copy of the filing paper to me, but I immediately found some mistakes there. One is about the IRA deductible declaration, and one is about the foreign tax credit. Both are missing in our e-files. Apparently the tax agent did a sloppy work which I am not happy with, not mention she charged a service fee of $126. She reported my overseas gross income but failed to do so for the tax I already paid to my current country of residence, which is referred to as foreign tax credit. That means we are double taxed for the portion of gross income overseas.  I am very upset by this part, because this is itself a lot of money (>10 k USD). That's why it's back to my question that when the soonest that I could file an amendment? 

 

Thanks a lot!

[NovaSprings 89]

26 minutes ago, issea said:

I have a question regarding the amended tax return. When should it be filed to IRS and consequent amended forms to the state taxation and finance department? Is it supposed to be after the tax day (April 17) or could it be right after your e-file where you find mistake?

 

I am asking so is because yesterday we just had our tax return filed as married filing jointly with help from a tax agent. My spouse sent a copy of the filing paper to me, but I immediately found some mistakes there. One is about the IRA deductible declaration, and one is about the foreign tax credit. Both are missing in our e-files. Apparently the tax agent did a sloppy work which I am not happy with, not mention she charged a service fee of $126. She reported my overseas gross income but failed to do so for the tax I already paid to my current country of residence, which is referred to as foreign tax credit. That means we are double taxed for the portion of gross income overseas.  I am very upset by this part, because this is itself a lot of money (>10 k USD). That's why it's back to my question that when the soonest that I could file an amendment? 

 

Thanks a lot!

There is no time frame, file your amendment as soon as possible. (next day is fine)  Because the tax person made the mistake, they should be filing it for free.  I would contact the Senior accountant or owner of the business and have a conversation with them.  

[issea 43]

16 minutes ago, NovaSprings said:

There is no time frame, file your amendment as soon as possible. (next day is fine)  Because the tax person made the mistake, they should be filing it for free.  I would contact the Senior accountant or owner of the business and have a conversation with them.  

Thank you very much for your reply. We sent messages to the tax lady but I haven't been updated yet. Last year they put me on live video chat when doing the tax preparation. But this time since they are fully occupied by clients ,which is typical when the deadline is approaching,  they did the tax return without my presence (virtually), and finished the paperwork in a rush and sent my hon away asap. We paid for the service with no quality.