Questions about taxes (I can't seem to find direct answers)...

[TenderHearted 39]

Guys,

 

    If all works out well, me and my fiance will be married before the end of this year. I hope everything continues to go smoothly, but since the petition has USCIS approval, we're past the rough stuff.

 

    First, and I hope I understand this correctly, I've checked on the rules of filing taxes after getting married, and as long as you marry by the every last second of the year, you can claim married on your taxes for that year. This would be a big help financially for us starting out, especially while we wait for her AOS (which will will apply for the day after we finally marry), as I know she wants to work some, but can't until the AOS is approved. Is there anything I need to know in doing so? I guess I might have to file an extention on my taxes for 2018, to allow for the AOS to go through, and we get the needed numbers to fill in the tax return correctly, but I'm simply looking for guidance and help here, and if anyone has something that would help, please chime in.

 

    Second, as regards items such as costs for filing the petitions, is there anything I can claim on taxes? I know this is a long shot, but I still need to ask. I love this woman madly, so I'm going to spend the money to get her here regardless, but if there were any possibility of getting a small bit of it back, it would help. Anything helps. But if not, that's just part of it, right?

 

    Third, if you have any other info that you feel would be good to know, please chime in with it, especially as regards anything with taxes and filling them out correctly in this circumstance. All I want is for a happy life with this incredible woman. Sometimes you have to go through hell to get to heaven, and I've been through that for sure, but that is the past, and I'm looking towards the future with confidence! Thank you all in advance for any useful info you have, it's greatly appreciated!

 

T

[Crazy Cat 41,850]

10 minutes ago, TenderHearted said:

Guys,

 

    If all works out well, me and my fiance will be married before the end of this year. I hope everything continues to go smoothly, but since the petition has USCIS approval, we're past the rough stuff.

 

    First, and I hope I understand this correctly, I've checked on the rules of filing taxes after getting married, and as long as you marry by the every last second of the year, you can claim married on your taxes for that year. This would be a big help financially for us starting out, especially while we wait for her AOS (which will will apply for the day after we finally marry), as I know she wants to work some, but can't until the AOS is approved. Is there anything I need to know in doing so? I guess I might have to file an extention on my taxes for 2018, to allow for the AOS to go through, and we get the needed numbers to fill in the tax return correctly, but I'm simply looking for guidance and help here, and if anyone has something that would help, please chime in.

 

    Second, as regards items such as costs for filing the petitions, is there anything I can claim on taxes? I know this is a long shot, but I still need to ask. I love this woman madly, so I'm going to spend the money to get her here regardless, but if there were any possibility of getting a small bit of it back, it would help. Anything helps. But if not, that's just part of it, right?

 

    Third, if you have any other info that you feel would be good to know, please chime in with it, especially as regards anything with taxes and filling them out correctly in this circumstance. All I want is for a happy life with this incredible woman. Sometimes you have to go through hell to get to heaven, and I've been through that for sure, but that is the past, and I'm looking towards the future with confidence! Thank you all in advance for any useful info you have, it's greatly appreciated!

 

T

1.  Yes, if you are legally married as of Dec 31st, you must file as married for that tax year.

2.  To my knowledge, you can not directly deduct immigration costs for a spouse or fiance.

3.  To file jointly, your spouse must have a SSN or ITIN.  Otherwise, you file as "married-filing separately".  You can write "NRA" in the space for spouse's SSN.....then mail.

[AshMarty 360]

8 minutes ago, TenderHearted said:

Guys,

 

    If all works out well, me and my fiance will be married before the end of this year. I hope everything continues to go smoothly, but since the petition has USCIS approval, we're past the rough stuff.

 

    First, and I hope I understand this correctly, I've checked on the rules of filing taxes after getting married, and as long as you marry by the every last second of the year, you can claim married on your taxes for that year. This would be a big help financially for us starting out, especially while we wait for her AOS (which will will apply for the day after we finally marry), as I know she wants to work some, but can't until the AOS is approved. Is there anything I need to know in doing so? I guess I might have to file an extention on my taxes for 2018, to allow for the AOS to go through, and we get the needed numbers to fill in the tax return correctly, but I'm simply looking for guidance and help here, and if anyone has something that would help, please chime in.

 

    Second, as regards items such as costs for filing the petitions, is there anything I can claim on taxes? I know this is a long shot, but I still need to ask. I love this woman madly, so I'm going to spend the money to get her here regardless, but if there were any possibility of getting a small bit of it back, it would help. Anything helps. But if not, that's just part of it, right?

 

    Third, if you have any other info that you feel would be good to know, please chime in with it, especially as regards anything with taxes and filling them out correctly in this circumstance. All I want is for a happy life with this incredible woman. Sometimes you have to go through hell to get to heaven, and I've been through that for sure, but that is the past, and I'm looking towards the future with confidence! Thank you all in advance for any useful info you have, it's greatly appreciated!

 

T

To make things simpler for tax purposes. I would make sure your fiancee gets her social security number when she first arrives to the US. Filing taxes as a married couple is a lot easier when your spouse has their SS#. If you wait until after the i-94 expires then it could be harder to get a SS# because of the long wait times for EAD/GC. Also take into consideration if she plans on changing her name after marriage. In that case you might want to wait until right after your are married to get the SS#. 

 

Beyond that taxes were super confusing this year with AOS, no green card, and my husband getting his EAD and a job the last month of the year.

 

My advice is keep asking questions here and then we actually hired an account to run our taxes a variety of ways (Married filing seperately/ Married filing joint) and there was one other way which I forget exactly how because he transitioned residency half way through the year but still qualified under married filing separately. I asked my account a lot of questions during the process to make sure she was understanding our immigration process which helped because of the information I was given here. 

[TenderHearted 39]

16 minutes ago, AshMarty said:

To make things simpler for tax purposes. I would make sure your fiancee gets her social security number when she first arrives to the US. Filing taxes as a married couple is a lot easier when your spouse has their SS#. If you wait until after the i-94 expires then it could be harder to get a SS# because of the long wait times for EAD/GC. Also take into consideration if she plans on changing her name after marriage. In that case you might want to wait until right after your are married to get the SS#. 

 

Beyond that taxes were super confusing this year with AOS, no green card, and my husband getting his EAD and a job the last month of the year.

 

My advice is keep asking questions here and then we actually hired an account to run our taxes a variety of ways (Married filing seperately/ Married filing joint) and there was one other way which I forget exactly how because he transitioned residency half way through the year but still qualified under married filing separately. I asked my account a lot of questions during the process to make sure she was understanding our immigration process which helped because of the information I was given here. 

First off, what exactly is the I-94? I've overlooked something, please explain this to me. I need to get her an SSN as soon as possible after we marry, it sounds. What do I need to do? I want to keep everything legit and legal. I want her to become a US citizen at some point in the future, and I don't want any marks against that process.

 

To be able to claim her on my taxes, for the standard deduction, I need one of those numbers. If we file "married filing separately", which I would have to do if she doens't have one of those numbers, we wouldn't be able to get her part of the standard deduction, correct? Taxes have always confused me horribly. Although it's going to be towards the end of this year before we marry, is there a possibility we can get both our standard deductions? This year, because of the Trump tax overhaul, it's 12,000 per person, or 24,000 for a married couple, double form what it was in years past. That's substantial, and worth trying to get as long as it's legal and legit to do so.

[Crazy Cat 41,850]

This is a good guide for obtaining her SSN:  http://www.visajourney.com/content/ssn

 

[geowrian 22,337]

I-94 is the arrival/departure record she received upon entry. She can look it up here: http://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/. It states when she entered and for how long she was granted access. For a K-1 visa holder, this will be 90 days.

Upon a proper filing for AOS, theya re granted authorized stay, so don't worry when the I-94 expires.

 

The SSA will only issue a Social Security card if you have at least 14 days of legal status remaining, so she must apply within the first 76 days of entry or else she will wait until she has an EAD (work permit) or green card. My suggestion is to get the SSN right away, then update the name after marriage (if possible...the SSA is inconsistent with this).

 

To file MFJ, she needs an ITIN or SSN. Worst case you can get an extension or file as MFS then amend the taxes once she gets an SSN.

 

There's no tax deduction for USCIS filing fees.

 

One must file as MFS or MFJ if married on the last day of the tax year (or HOH with a non-spouse dependent).

Edited August 8, 2018 by geowrian

[AshMarty 360]

21 minutes ago, TenderHearted said:

First off, what exactly is the I-94? I've overlooked something, please explain this to me. I need to get her an SSN as soon as possible after we marry, it sounds. What do I need to do? I want to keep everything legit and legal. I want her to become a US citizen at some point in the future, and I don't want any marks against that process.

 

To be able to claim her on my taxes, for the standard deduction, I need one of those numbers. If we file "married filing separately", which I would have to do if she doens't have one of those numbers, we wouldn't be able to get her part of the standard deduction, correct? Taxes have always confused me horribly. Although it's going to be towards the end of this year before we marry, is there a possibility we can get both our standard deductions? This year, because of the Trump tax overhaul, it's 12,000 per person, or 24,000 for a married couple, double form what it was in years past. That's substantial, and worth trying to get as long as it's legal and legit to do so.

When your fiancé arrives in the US on a K1 she will receive an I-94 which makes her stay valid for 90 days. At which point you will get married and file for AOS which again makes her legal to stay while her paperwork is processing. There is a gap of time between her I-94 and EAD/GC during this limbo is can be difficult to get things like a license and a SS# number because of the lack of paperwork to prove she is immigrating. It is easiest to get her SS# while she has I-94. https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/i-94

 

It is tricky/complicated, especially that first year of filing, because your spouse may have to submit her overseas income as part of your income also (my husband has overseas income for 2017 and  investments, as well as US income for 2017), if they had an overseas job or income this year.

 

Take one step at a time for sure but it is good to be looking ahead and try and be prepared at the same time

Edited August 8, 2018 by AshMarty

[geowrian 22,337]

Also, look at the non-resident spouse "choice"/election she will very likely need to complete. Note that you cannot file online if making this choice, but it may be necessary to have her treated as a resident alien for tax purposes even though she isn't really a resident yet (she can actually be considered a resident alien OR a non-resident alien, so she needs to make a choice on which one to use).

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

 

Look at the use of the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) to exclude her overseas income prior to coming to the US.

 

Edited August 8, 2018 by geowrian

[AshMarty 360]

5 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Also, look at the non-resident spouse "choice"/election she will very likely need to complete. Note that you cannot file online if making this choice, but it may be necessary to have her treated as a resident alien for tax purposes even though she isn't really a resident yet (she can actually be considered a resident alien OR a non-resident alien, so she needs to make a choice on which one to use).

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

 

Look at the use of the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) to exclude her overseas income prior to coming to the US.

 

That was the third option my accountant was looking into as options when I discussed her processing our taxes in 3 ways, in the post above, to see which best benefited us!  Thanks for clarifying a little more on the process for the OP!

 

Doing taxes this past year was probably more confusing then the actual immigration process. 

Edited August 8, 2018 by AshMarty

[TenderHearted 39]

To Everyone,

 

    Thank you for your insight! There's a lot to this process, and I know many of you know it well, and obviously much better than I do! It's totally worth it, but it's a little daunting, I'll admit.

 

    I kind of thought, that I probably better get an extension on our taxes for next year, but we'll try to get her an SSN, since this I-94 period will allow it, and then we could claim MFJ, which will be very substantial on tax returns this year, given the raised amounts of standard deductions. Plus, we need to get her a Driver's License, and I'm sure you need an SSN or ITIN in order to do that legally.

 

    Again, thank you EVERYONE!

 

T

[TenderHearted 39]

1 hour ago, AshMarty said:

To make things simpler for tax purposes. I would make sure your fiancee gets her social security number when she first arrives to the US. Filing taxes as a married couple is a lot easier when your spouse has their SS#. If you wait until after the i-94 expires then it could be harder to get a SS# because of the long wait times for EAD/GC. Also take into consideration if she plans on changing her name after marriage. In that case you might want to wait until right after your are married to get the SS#. 

 

Beyond that taxes were super confusing this year with AOS, no green card, and my husband getting his EAD and a job the last month of the year.

 

My advice is keep asking questions here and then we actually hired an account to run our taxes a variety of ways (Married filing seperately/ Married filing joint) and there was one other way which I forget exactly how because he transitioned residency half way through the year but still qualified under married filing separately. I asked my account a lot of questions during the process to make sure she was understanding our immigration process which helped because of the information I was given here. 

We will be marrying pretty much immediately after she arrives in the US. The only requirement we have is that we will need to marry on a Saturday, to allow invited ones to opportunity to join us on our day. So, if she arrives on Thursday, we will marry 2 days later that following Saturday. Like I've said, if all goes well, we will marry before the year ends, but if not, that's OK, we'll marry as soon as we can after that. It's forever in our minds, which is the way you're supposed to treat marriage, so a few extra weeks aren't a big deal, but I'm just hoping to get some tax benefits if we manage to marry before the year's end, which seems possible if I understand things correctly. I'm sure she will change her name to at least include my last name. She's Spanish, and the last names can get very long!

[TenderHearted 39]

1 hour ago, missileman said:

This is a good guide for obtaining her SSN:  http://www.visajourney.com/content/ssn

 

Thank you, I'll be closely looking at this!