I-130 Tax return filed as SINGLE

[florida racer 73 200]

32 minutes ago, Roel said:

It's amazing how many people get this simple thing wrong. Just wow. 

not really amazing......

 

You cannot e-file your taxes and put NRA, everything must be hard copied and printed/mailed to the IRS.

 

You cannot even e-file an extension of time with NRA, it must be printed and mailed.

 

Turbo tax, tax act and many other online services and places like HR block cannot e-file when NRA is used because the software requires either an ITIN or a SSN.

 

Whether it is right, wrong or indifferent, I let my CPA (who has a heck of alot more knowledge about taxes and the IRS) deal with this. This is why the IRS allows you to amend the taxes.

 

I would no berate anyone who listens to their tax professional about this and follows what they tell them, just remember the tax preparer is on the hook for wrong information the same as you are.

 

[Crazy Cat 41,886]

12 hours ago, Amelmahbub07 said:

IRS guy is right you can amend it later.

Why not just file the taxes correctly and avoid having to amend later? Any tax professional who advises a person who was married as of December 31st to file as single for that tax year is not as professional as his client thinks.  Whether a person can file as single is very simple.  "Was I married as of Dec 31st"?  If the answer is "yes", then the person cannot file as single.  Married filing jointly, married filing separately, or filing as head of household might be appropriate for his/her situation.....but filing as single is not........no matter how many tax "professionals" say otherwise.

[Crazy Cat 41,886]

1 hour ago, Roel said:

It's amazing how many people get this simple thing wrong. Just wow. 

Exactly.  As a whole, filing taxes can be complex.  However, the question of filing as single vs married is a no-brainer...

[AMJ1 17]

19 hours ago, AMJ1 said:

Hello,

 

I am US Citizen. I applied I-130 for my husband.

PD is April 2018 Texas Service Center.

I was reading and preparing for the next step of the application while waiting for the next notice. For the AOS for my tax return I have been filing as Single and not Married. The reason I filed as Single is that my husband is not here in US and never been. I read that it is a RED FLAG and it could denied my application. 😫 Anybody has a same situation as mine?? Could someone enlighten me?? 😞 

UPDATE: So guys here are my plans now. I hired a CPA to fix my income tax and will file for 1040x to amend. And also I made an appointment to a Immigration Lawyer so they could help me about my case. 

I still have a long way to my application. Will update you guys how it goes. 

[florida racer 73 200]

41 minutes ago, missileman said:

Exactly.  As a whole, filing taxes can be complex.  However, the question of filing as single vs married is a no-brainer...

Well if it is a no brainier as you say, why are so many people being advised by tax professionals (that have years of college training and experience) being advised otherwise. I see alot of people being advised to file single when they are married and the spouse is outside of the country and does not have an ITIN or SSN, I find it hard to believe that there are so many tax professionals are wrong or misinformed.

 

So, what is the reason then? I am curious to hear an explanation on this one?

[shumway1756 304]

1 hour ago, missileman said:

Exactly.  As a whole, filing taxes can be complex.  However, the question of filing as single vs married is a no-brainer...

Exactly right, it really is a no-brainer. The IRS publication 501 makes it very clear what is considered married and what is not.

 

I went through this with my wife this year since she is presently an NRA. I paper-filed because I had to. It's not hard to do, and I don't have to worry about amending my taxes. Amending a tax return is for when mistakes are made, it's not intended to be used to temporarily (and knowingly) falsify a return and then "undo" the falsification later.

 

The person may well get away with it, but as we've seen here, it causes more headaches than it's worth. Doing it properly the first time around is the way to go.

Edited June 25, 2018 by shumway1756

[Crazy Cat 41,886]

5 minutes ago, florida racer 73 said:

Well if it is a no brainier as you say, why are so many people being advised by tax professionals (that have years of college training and experience) being advised otherwise. I see alot of people being advised to file single when they are married and the spouse is outside of the country and does not have an ITIN or SSN, I find it hard to believe that there are so many tax professionals are wrong or misinformed.

 

So, what is the reason then? I am curious to hear an explanation on this one?

That's a good question.  I believe it comes from over-thinking the situation, and applying false logic. However, it really boils down to a single question "Am I married?".  If one queries "filing single when married" on Google, the result is literally a multitude of correct advice.  Here are a few:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3723702-if-i-m-married-can-i-file-my-taxes-as-single

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2017/04/16/ask-the-taxgirl-filing-single-when-youre-married/#2e139d0a1415

https://budgeting.thenest.com/can-married-person-file-single-taxes-3139.html

 

Personally, I filed "Married, filing separately" for tax years 2015 and 2016. I had to write "NRA" in the field for my wife's SSN, and I had to snail mail the returns. For tax year 2017, my wife and I filed "Married, filing separately" since she had foreign income........My accountant did a great job.

 

[Talako 785]

I find this thread absolutely amazing.  Any amount of research into this subject would result in knowing that being married in any situation requires one to file something other than single.

 

Blindly accepting what a CPA is telling you because you refuse to educate yourself, is just not a smart.  CPAs run the gambit from extremely smart to more or less criminals, so it is in your best interest to trust until you receive contrary information.  You now have that contrary information.  Not questioning, not following up, and strictly relying on blind faith and ignorance will lead to problems.      

 

 

[Talako 785]

27 minutes ago, florida racer 73 said:

Well if it is a no brainier as you say, why are so many people being advised by tax professionals (that have years of college training and experience) being advised otherwise. I see alot of people being advised to file single when they are married and the spouse is outside of the country and does not have an ITIN or SSN, I find it hard to believe that there are so many tax professionals are wrong or misinformed.

 

So, what is the reason then? I am curious to hear an explanation on this one?

It's quite simple.  There are a lot tax professionals that are just not trained properly.

 

I used to work in the Tax Department of a very large CPA firm.  We used to fix a lot of damage caused by "Tax Professionals" (i.e. Mom and Pop tax preparers, those wonderful morons at H&R Block, and even other CPA firms.)

 

Call the "Professionals" at the IRS for advice, and see what you get...  

[geowrian 22,337]

Many tax professionals do not regularly deal with personal income taxes with NRA spouses. That doesn't excuse wrong advice, but it may help explain it.

As noted, the filing status won't impact the visa application.

Beyond that, I highly suggest that people follow the comments from the mod.

[Crazy Cat 41,886]

4 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Many tax professionals do not regularly deal with personal income taxes with NRA spouses. That doesn't excuse wrong advice, but it may help explain it.

As noted, the filing status won't impact the visa application.

Beyond that, I highly suggest that people follow the comments from the mod.

Bingo!!!  You beat me to the punch.......I, too, think the lack of clients with LPR spouses in the middle of the immigration process is the likely reason we see the professionals giving poor advice, although I would think a non-experienced professional would do a little research before giving blatantly bad advice.

[mushroomspore 3,044]

23 minutes ago, missileman said:

Bingo!!!  You beat me to the punch.......I, too, think the lack of clients with LPR spouses in the middle of the immigration process is the likely reason we see the professionals giving poor advice, although I would think a non-experienced professional would do a little research before giving blatantly bad advice.

Yes I agree that tax professionals do not have much overlap with immigration clients. However, it's still not a hard rule to remember and as you said previously, it boils to the objective FACT of someone's marital status. The foreign spouse and his/her presence in (or absence from) and/or lack of an SSN/ITIN the US has no bearing on how taxpayer's filing status is determined. People are allowed to put NRA in the space for SSN/ITIN. It is also technically not legal to file incorrectly. 

 

Title 26, section 7206(1) of the US Code states anyone who knowingly misrepresents ANY part of tax forms & other such documents is committing felony perjury.

[Mina90 134]

For years, we had been going to a tax professional (who had been doing taxes for over 40 years) that we trusted. However, once I got married and had applied for my spouse at that time, I went to file my taxes and the professional told me I needed to file single. After she argued that was the correct way to file, I let her do what she wanted and then I amended my taxes to married filing separately. Needless to say, I stopped going to that tax professional. 

 

It is pretty simple. Married=married. Single=Single. You can't file for something you aren't. I didn't have the most knowledge about taxes but even I did a basic IRS website search and found what was correct. You can put your faith into CPAs/tax professionals blindly, but at the end of the day, it's you that it affects whether taxes are filed correctly or incorrectly, not the CPAs or tax professionals.

[Orangesapples 1,954]

4 hours ago, missileman said:

Why not just file the taxes correctly and avoid having to amend later? Any tax professional who advises a person who was married as of December 31st to file as single for that tax year is not as professional as his client thinks.  Whether a person can file as single is very simple.  "Was I married as of Dec 31st"?  If the answer is "yes", then the person cannot file as single.  Married filing jointly, married filing separately, or filing as head of household might be appropriate for his/her situation.....but filing as single is not........no matter how many tax "professionals" say otherwise.

Here's the thing - if you file single when you're married, the government is not harmed by it, it actually benefits from it, so it won't come after you. Actually the person filing is the only at a disadvantage from that and by amending the taxes later, they're basically giving the government an interest free loan. That's why usually it's not a big deal and there's no penalty. Well unless you count the amount you've lost to inflation as a penalty.

Edited June 25, 2018 by Orangesapples

[mcdull 474]

22 hours ago, AMJ1 said:

Hello,

 

I am US Citizen. I applied I-130 for my husband.

PD is April 2018 Texas Service Center.

I was reading and preparing for the next step of the application while waiting for the next notice. For the AOS for my tax return I have been filing as Single and not Married. The reason I filed as Single is that my husband is not here in US and never been. I read that it is a RED FLAG and it could denied my application. 😫 Anybody has a same situation as mine?? Could someone enlighten me?? 😞 

this is the funniest thing I've heard in my life.

Your husband, being absent from the US doesn't make you any less “married" .

 

Since I am not in Hong Kong, does it make me any less Hong Konger?