file married jointly with foreign spouse

[geowrian 22,337]

19 minutes ago, Trinab80 said:

He earned income when he was living in Jamaica while going through the K1 process, but I'm curious how would I report that to my US tax return?

USCs, LPRs, and US tax residents are taxed on worldwide income. That's a drawback of being a resident alien.

 

In TurboTax, foreign income (as of when I did it last year) was declared as other income. You would then fill out the forms for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) and/or Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) to exclude this income from being taxed by the US.

FEIE (Form 2555/2555EZ): https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion

FTC (Form 1116): https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-tax-credit

 

I'll also refer to this pinned thread for foreign spouses:

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by geowrian

[JayMar2019 2,741]

2 minutes ago, geowrian said:

USCs, LPRs, and US tax residents are taxed on worldwide income. That's a drawback of being a resident alien.

 

In TurboTax, foreign income (as of when I did it last year) was declared as other income. You would then fill out the forms for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) and/or Foreign Tax Credit (FTC) to exclude this income from being taxed by the US.

FEIE (Form 2555/2555EZ): https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-earned-income-exclusion

FTC (Form 1116): https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-tax-credit

 

I'll also refer to this pinned thread for foreign spouses:

 

WOW......didn't know that so I'm happy I asked this question.

 

So, then my follow-up question would be...am I suppose to have him get paystubs from the multiple employers he had in Jamaica and/or try to convert JMD to USD when adding his income into our tax filing? Will TurboTax, automatically provide me a FEIE and/or FTC option? Because what I will probably do is delete out the numbers and start all over again so I can make sure everything is correct.

 

It's just confusing because if I had known his income needed to be reported I would have started collecting his paystubs from when he was still in Jamaica. And to think, I called myself getting his SSN card ASAP after he arrived so I can make sure I file married-joint without having to file a ITIN#. I hope it doesn't adjust my tax return amount too much, but I guess I got too excited to quickly...lol.

[Hemzi 244]

Might be a stupid question to ask, but I've recently sent off my UK passport for renewal under my new married name. Husband hasn't filed for the taxes yet, but with everyone saying we'll need the passport as proof, and me seeing stuff about it being stamped to show proof of entry... is that going to be an issue with my new passport, as it won't have anything stamped in it? 

[portorusa 431]

I didn't find an answer to a question "Whom should I show my foreign spouse's passport to while applying MFJ?"

My foreign husband is expected to visit me here in the States early March. We got married in October 2018, and his CR1 is pending.

When he is here in the States in March, we plan to file for his ITIN together.

[NikLR 13,227]

4 hours ago, portorusa said:

I didn't find an answer to a question "Whom should I show my foreign spouse's passport to while applying MFJ?"

My foreign husband is expected to visit me here in the States early March. We got married in October 2018, and his CR1 is pending.

When he is here in the States in March, we plan to file for his ITIN together.

You have to mail it with the w7 to the IRS. 

Check out the w7 on the IRS website. 

[Jeanne Adil 1,651]

22 hours ago, portorusa said:

I didn't find an answer to a question "Whom should I show my foreign spouse's passport to while applying MFJ?"

My foreign husband is expected to visit me here in the States early March. We got married in October 2018, and his CR1 is pending.

When he is here in the States in March, we plan to file for his ITIN together.

you can  try going to IRS office/get them to make a copy  and initial  the officer saw  original

but an original birth and marriage certificate is adqueate 

the best advice on this comes directly from IRS instructions on the form

 

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw7.pdf

 

 

[portorusa 431]

16 hours ago, NikLR said:

You have to mail it with the w7 to the IRS. 

Check out the w7 on the IRS website. 

To mail the passport to IRS? Really?

And how is my husband supposed to travel back without his passport?

[portorusa 431]

42 minutes ago, adil-rafa said:

you can  try going to IRS office/get them to make a copy  and initial  the officer saw  original

but an original birth and marriage certificate is adqueate 

the best advice on this comes directly from IRS instructions on the form

 

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw7.pdf

 

 

Thank you for the response! I hope IRS office will be open by March (fingers crossed) and the government shutdown is over.

In this case can we just show all the original documents required to the IRS person there?

I don't feel comfortable to mail any originals to IRS....Will certified copies do?

[Jeanne Adil 1,651]

3 hours ago, portorusa said:

Thank you for the response! I hope IRS office will be open by March (fingers crossed) and the government shutdown is over.

In this case can we just show all the original documents required to the IRS person there?

I don't feel comfortable to mail any originals to IRS....Will certified copies do?

All  i  can  say  is i  sent an original marriage and birth ceritficate

that is why i had extras  made

i sent originals with a  translation in English

usually the passport is only used here by persons on  a work visa as a  stand only document

many of us don't like sending originals thru the mail (so use  UPS)

but  when  applying for US passport or  renewal  or SS benefits (for examples),  originals are required

[portorusa 431]

9 minutes ago, adil-rafa said:

All  i  can  say  is i  sent an original marriage and birth ceritficate

 

Thank you for sharing! Were those originals returned to you later by IRS?

The thing is I only have 1 (one) original of our Arizona marriage certificate (it's so called "long form", which is the marriage license+marriage certificate with the silver stamp). They won't give you more than one.

They would give you a certified copy if you ask (short form, only marriage certificate with a white stamp), no problem. Can it be considered as "original" though?

It's for this reason that I am not sending out the true original (long form) to anyone, no way.

[Jeanne Adil 1,651]

4 hours ago, portorusa said:

Thank you for sharing! Were those originals returned to you later by IRS?

The thing is I only have 1 (one) original of our Arizona marriage certificate (it's so called "long form", which is the marriage license+marriage certificate with the silver stamp). They won't give you more than one.

They would give you a certified copy if you ask (short form, only marriage certificate with a white stamp), no problem. Can it be considered as "original" though?

It's for this reason that I am not sending out the true original (long form) to anyone, no way.

seriously?

what  happens if it is lost?'

 

 

guess you use the short form

 

you married  here in  the US and he will interview in his home country

probably they will not ask to  see original  but the embassy can 

not a high fraud country so this is lucky part

i guess i  am  lucky 

NY state provided me with 4 birth cetificates and here in  Tn i was able to have as many death cetificates of my late husband as i  needed

and in Morocco we have had to have several marriage certficates for different reasons

 

[NikLR 13,227]

a certified copy is a copy from the original issuer and yes that's acceptable. 

[Apple Bee 272]

On 1/18/2019 at 2:25 PM, John & Rose said:

Correct.  I asked the IRS about that before the shutdown.  They need the actual passport.  You are in better shape than me.  He may be in the states before you have to file.  I have my wife's passport and I have a trip planned in April.  If I don't get the passport back before the trip she may not have one for the interview unless I do a quick trip to drop it off.  I don't trust FedEx for that.  I may have to though.

I'm confused. Their instructions state original or certified copy. Why would they put that in the instructions if they will only accept the original passport?

 

"You must submit original documents, or certified copies of 
these documents from the issuing agency, that support the 
information provided on Form W-7. A certified document is one 
that the original issuing agency provides and certifies as an 
exact copy of the original document and contains an official certified stamp or seal".

Edited February 14, 2019 by Apple Bee

[John & Rose 7,239]

The originals are certified by the IRS Certified Acceptance Agent (CAA) or the country of origin. That is an option. With a CAA the original passport will only be out of your hands for about 10 minutes. I’m my checking they are pricey. I would rather send the original than pay between $350 and $700 to have the CAA certify it. 

[GAMAJM 320]

Please help!!  I am so confused about what to do..so I am hoping someone has a clear answer. I filed my tax return in January as single,  no dependents, and already got my refund I married my husband in August 24, 2018. He has no SS # lives in India and has been unemployed for the past couple of years. He does not have a tax ID for India.

 

My PD is September 2018, (Nebraska) so I think I have time to make any changes before the NVC process. I spoke with a tax consultant and she said fining single was ok because it was the end of the year. I now read the IRS website and that doesn't appear to be true. So do I need to amend my tax return?