Proof of income : duel citizen (Canada&US) patitioner filing tax to irs before filing I-864?

[Jiwon 5]

Hello all

 

After hours and hours of surfing around IRS pages and internet forums I have decided to ask some questions here in case there's anyone who are having similar problems of mine!

 

My husband, petitioner has dual citizenship in Canada and the US, (His mother was Canadian and father is American.)

He had lived in Canada since his birth, lived and worked until Dec 2017.

He got his SSN and American Passport issued around Nov 2017 when we went down for our cousin's wedding.

He moved down to the States Dec2017 and has been working since.

We have business together and we are closing the business this year 2018. (so he has income from Canada this year 2018)

He has never filed his income in the States.

He has been keeping all his paystubs and can request a letter of employment from his work.

 

Now our petition is approved (Oct 2018) and we are in NVC stage now.

the next step is filing I-864 but since he has never filed the tax in the States yet, he doe not have the tax return record.

We have looked and looked about the filing the previous income from CANADA, some pages says 3 years some says 6 years. which is not a problem since we can request Canadian tax agency for the information. 

I am thinking maybe we will have to wait until January to file 2018 tax, But as you all know, it will take a while to get the papers from the work and report and than wait until it is ready for record to submit to NVC.. we will have to wait another 2 month...

 

Here are the questions

1. Can he file his previous income (3 or 6years of Canadian tax report) in the month of December?

or

2. Can we submit CRA(Canadian tax agency) tax record for previous income + submit paystubs (2018) and a letter of employment. the I-864

 

anyone had similar situations? or any advice would be much appreciated!

[geowrian 22,337]

I'll have to defer on the Canadian taxes item...I'm not familiar with their tax practices.

 

As for the I-864...

Has he not been filing his US taxes? Since he only recently got an SSN (and didn't qualify for an ITIN), I'm assuming not.

USCs are taxed on worldwide income. Usually all off this income under ~$100k/year can be excluded via the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, and double taxation can be avoided via the Foreign Tax Credit.

Even if one does not owe taxes, they are required to file a return to claim the FEIE and/or FTC if they are earning above the minimum IRS thresholds.

 

Canadian tax returns aren't required for the I-864 and won't really add to the case. He will be required to file at least the past 3 years of taxes for I-864 purposes before he qualifies to be an I-864 sponsor (which he must be as the petitioner). At least the most recent year's income tax return copy is required, with the 2 years prior to that being optional.

Either way, the past 3 years must be filed if one is required to file.

The paystubs + letter of employment would be the best evidence of current income to include.

[John & Rose 7,239]

8 hours ago, geowrian said:

I'll have to defer on the Canadian taxes item...I'm not familiar with their tax practices.

 

As for the I-864...

Has he not been filing his US taxes? Since he only recently got an SSN (and didn't qualify for an ITIN), I'm assuming not.

USCs are taxed on worldwide income. Usually all off this income under ~$100k/year can be excluded via the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, and double taxation can be avoided via the Foreign Tax Credit.

Even if one does not owe taxes, they are required to file a return to claim the FEIE and/or FTC if they are earning above the minimum IRS thresholds.

 

Canadian tax returns aren't required for the I-864 and won't really add to the case. He will be required to file at least the past 3 years of taxes for I-864 purposes before he qualifies to be an I-864 sponsor (which he must be as the petitioner). At least the most recent year's income tax return copy is required, with the 2 years prior to that being optional.

Either way, the past 3 years must be filed if one is required to file.

The paystubs + letter of employment would be the best evidence of current income to include.

Very interesting.  I was wondering about that.  I've seen a lot of "my petitioner doesn't need to file taxes because..."  I didn't think it was that easy.  I thought there is some paperwork required to be filed every year even if that is just for a tax waiver.

[geowrian 22,337]

13 minutes ago, John & Rose said:

Very interesting.  I was wondering about that.  I've seen a lot of "my petitioner doesn't need to file taxes because..."  I didn't think it was that easy.  I thought there is some paperwork required to be filed every year even if that is just for a tax waiver.

If somebody didn't work that year, or worked but earned less than a minimum amount (I think around $4,000 if MFS, $12,000 if Single), then a return isn't required to be filed.

If they earned more than those thresholds, then they need to file. Theoretically, they could file and not claim the FEIE or FTC and would therefore likely owe taxes. As such, they need to file in order to claim those and reduce/eliminate their tax liability.

[Jiwon 5]

1 hour ago, John & Rose said:

Very interesting.  I was wondering about that.  I've seen a lot of "my petitioner doesn't need to file taxes because..."  I didn't think it was that easy.  I thought there is some paperwork required to be filed every year even if that is just for a tax waiver.

Didn’t say ‘didn’t need to’ and we have tried  but it seems like simple thing as filing tax need so much ground work.

but guess there are so many different cases

[Jiwon 5]

10 hours ago, geowrian said:

I'll have to defer on the Canadian taxes item...I'm not familiar with their tax practices.

 

As for the I-864...

Has he not been filing his US taxes? Since he only recently got an SSN (and didn't qualify for an ITIN), I'm assuming not.

USCs are taxed on worldwide income. Usually all off this income under ~$100k/year can be excluded via the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, and double taxation can be avoided via the Foreign Tax Credit.

Even if one does not owe taxes, they are required to file a return to claim the FEIE and/or FTC if they are earning above the minimum IRS thresholds.

 

Canadian tax returns aren't required for the I-864 and won't really add to the case. He will be required to file at least the past 3 years of taxes for I-864 purposes before he qualifies to be an I-864 sponsor (which he must be as the petitioner). At least the most recent year's income tax return copy is required, with the 2 years prior to that being optional.

Either way, the past 3 years must be filed if one is required to file.

The paystubs + letter of employment would be the best evidence of current income to include.

Thank you for your reply!

 

I knew it’s either way but still trying to find a way to shorten the process.

time to call IRS! 

 

[aaron2020 11,651]

10 hours ago, Jiwon said:

Hello all

 

After hours and hours of surfing around IRS pages and internet forums I have decided to ask some questions here in case there's anyone who are having similar problems of mine!

 

My husband, petitioner has dual citizenship in Canada and the US, (His mother was Canadian and father is American.)

He had lived in Canada since his birth, lived and worked until Dec 2017.

He got his SSN and American Passport issued around Nov 2017 when we went down for our cousin's wedding.

He moved down to the States Dec2017 and has been working since.

We have business together and we are closing the business this year 2018. (so he has income from Canada this year 2018)

He has never filed his income in the States.

He has been keeping all his paystubs and can request a letter of employment from his work.

 

Now our petition is approved (Oct 2018) and we are in NVC stage now.

the next step is filing I-864 but since he has never filed the tax in the States yet, he doe not have the tax return record.

We have looked and looked about the filing the previous income from CANADA, some pages says 3 years some says 6 years. which is not a problem since we can request Canadian tax agency for the information. 

I am thinking maybe we will have to wait until January to file 2018 tax, But as you all know, it will take a while to get the papers from the work and report and than wait until it is ready for record to submit to NVC.. we will have to wait another 2 month...

 

Here are the questions

1. Can he file his previous income (3 or 6years of Canadian tax report) in the month of December?

or

2. Can we submit CRA(Canadian tax agency) tax record for previous income + submit paystubs (2018) and a letter of employment. the I-864

 

anyone had similar situations? or any advice would be much appreciated!

As a US citizen, your husband should have filed US tax returns as required.  US citizens must report worldwide income even if nothing is earned in the US.  Your husband will need to file US income tax returns for years 2015, 2016, and 2017.  He can file them now.  If he does not file these tax returns, he is not eligible to petition for you. 

 

His Canadian tax returns are useless for the I-864.

[aaron2020 11,651]

2 minutes ago, Jiwon said:

Thank you for your reply!

 

I knew it’s either way but still trying to find a way to shorten the process.

time to call IRS! 

 

The IRS does not offer tax advice.  You will not get any help from them.

Your husband has to file US tax returns for years 2015, 2016, and 2017 on his worldwide income.  Without these tax returns, you are ineligible to immigrate to the US through him.  

[John & Rose 7,239]

2 hours ago, Jiwon said:

Didn’t say ‘didn’t need to’ and we have tried  but it seems like simple thing as filing tax need so much ground work.

but guess there are so many different cases

I was actually not commenting directly about your case.  It was just something that I have seen lately so I wanted to ask the question.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[pushbrk 12,903]

On 12/11/2018 at 12:50 PM, Jiwon said:

 

I knew it’s either way but still trying to find a way to shorten the process.

time to call IRS! 

 

Just contact a qualified US Tax Preparation Service.  Don't confuse "taxes" with "tax returns".  He needs to file three tax returns.  He may or may not owe any taxes.

[pushbrk 12,903]

On 12/11/2018 at 12:52 PM, aaron2020 said:

As a US citizen, your husband should have filed US tax returns as required.  US citizens must report worldwide income even if nothing is earned in the US.  Your husband will need to file US income tax returns for years 2015, 2016, and 2017.  He can file them now.  If he does not file these tax returns, he is not eligible to petition for you. 

 

His Canadian tax returns are useless for the I-864.

The sentence in bold above is incorrect.  He can't properly provide an affidavit of support without filing at least three tax returns.  It has nothing to do with "petitioning".  The affidavit of support is not submitted with a spouse visa petition.

 

Edited December 15, 2018 by pushbrk

[pushbrk 12,903]

On 12/11/2018 at 10:47 AM, John & Rose said:

Very interesting.  I was wondering about that.  I've seen a lot of "my petitioner doesn't need to file taxes because..."  I didn't think it was that easy.  I thought there is some paperwork required to be filed every year even if that is just for a tax waiver.

It's that easy when it's true.  Whether it is true, depends on actual circumstances.  Advice of value given here WILL match the actual circumstances.  When it doesn't, then it isn't "valuable".