Filing taxes WITH SSN and NO Foreign Income

[KozmicBlues 592]

Hi everyone,

I've searched existing posts but all seems to be for situations where the foreign spouse has no SSN and/or has foreign income.

 

Background: My husband came to the U.S. on K1 in Feb 2018. He did not work at all in his home country in January so therefore he has no foreign income during 2018. He does have a SSN which he got before the K1 expired. He received his EAD in September 2018 and began working immediately at a part-time job. His income for 2018 came out to roughly about $6K since it was part-time and only a few months of the year. His AOS is still pending awaiting interview so at this time he does not have a green card.

 

I started my taxes on TurboTax as Married filing jointly. I entered all of our details and it never asked anything about his citizenship/residency status. I searched for help on TurboTax and the only thing I can find is steps for filing when the foreign spouse DOESN'T have a SSN. I guess since he does have a SSN it didn't trigger any further questions. Now I'm at the point where I can submit and e-file, but I'm just not sure that it would be this easy? Is there something else I have to do since he is not technically a Resident yet? I keep reading something about attaching some affidavit to say that he should be treated as a resident, but I'm super confused - do we have to do that and can we still e-file?

 

Our tax situation is super simple otherwise so I'd like to avoid paying a CPA to do our taxes if at all possible. But I also don't want to screw anything up and have to answer to it later!

 

Appreciate any advice or guidance.

Edited February 18, 2019 by KozmicBlues
spelling error

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

50 minutes ago, KozmicBlues said:

Hi everyone,

I've searched existing posts but all seems to be for situations where the foreign spouse has no SSN and/or has foreign income.

 

Background: My husband came to the U.S. on K1 in Feb 2018. He did not work at all in his home country in January so therefore he has no foreign income during 2018. He does have a SSN which he got before the K1 expired. He received his EAD in September 2018 and began working immediately at a part-time job. His income for 2018 came out to roughly about $6K since it was part-time and only a few months of the year. His AOS is still pending awaiting interview so at this time he does not have a green card.

 

I started my taxes on TurboTax as Married filing jointly. I entered all of our details and it never asked anything about his citizenship/residency status. I searched for help on TurboTax and the only thing I can find is steps for filing when the foreign spouse DOESN'T have a SSN. I guess since he does have a SSN it didn't trigger any further questions. Now I'm at the point where I can submit and e-file, but I'm just not sure that it would be this easy? Is there something else I have to do since he is not technically a Resident yet? I keep reading something about attaching some affidavit to say that he should be treated as a resident, but I'm super confused - do we have to do that and can we still e-file?

 

Our tax situation is super simple otherwise so I'd like to avoid paying a CPA to do our taxes if at all possible. But I also don't want to screw anything up and have to answer to it later!

 

Appreciate any advice or guidance.

It is that easy and don't worry just go ahead file.

[Cryssiekins 976]

I think the affidavit for the non-resident spouse only comes into play when there is foreign income to declare because you would want to be considered a resident in the event there was income to exclude on the worldwide income form.

 

[Amit&Julie 180]

Haha, I am in the same boat and was trying to figure this out this morning. I would recommend researching Publication 519 before you do the final "Submit". There might be something helpful in there or some situation that you didn't realize applied to you. I'm probably going to end up contacting a CPA myself since I have a potentially hefty refund at stake and don't want to botch anything and end up owing or having to make corrections. YMMV. 

[Wuozopo 4,293]

6 hours ago, KozmicBlues said:

Is there something else I have to do since he is not technically a Resident yet? 

He was present in the US (from Feb) which gives him enough physical presence (around 300 days) to be a "resident alien for tax purposes" which is nothing to do with immigration residence. No need to "elect" to be treated as such with a statement. 

 

5 hours ago, Cryssiekins said:

think the affidavit for the non-resident spouse only comes into play when there is foreign income to declare because you would want to be considered a resident in the event there was income to exclude on the worldwide income form.

Nope. It has to do with if you are allowed to file jointly. A nonresident alien can not file a joint return. But if you were married to a USC, and didn't even spend one day in this country or have a greencard, you could choose to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes.  So those coming late in the year who don't pass the physical presence test (180 days) or the greencard test will do the statement if they want to file a joint return.

 

 

Edited February 18, 2019 by Wuozopo