Has anyone Successfully Amended Their 2018 Tax Return to Married Filing Jointly?

[Cheddar Cheeze 15]

While in the process of adjusting my wife's status, she has FINALLY received her SSN. For this past tax season, I had to file Married Filing Separately because she had no SSN, and I did not want her to apply for ITIN thinking that it would complicate things. The SSA not issuing the SSN at the time we applied was an extreme headache but that's a whole another story. In filing as MFS, this resulted in me owing the IRS. So now that we got her SSN we would like to amend from MFS to MFJ as we would receive a refund. My question is, is anyone out there in somewhat of the same situation as us? Has anyone successfully amended their tax return filing from MFS to MFJ?  What was your experience?

Edited September 10, 2019 by Cheddar Cheeze

[DennisMN 12]

I have the same thought, and would like to hear from others.

I would have a tax prepare lead you though as you have several Federal and state forms to do.

You should have additional refund coming your way, I always look at my time and prepare cost to keep in mind.

Edited September 10, 2019 by DennisMN
spelling

[cyclone27 710]

We did it for our 2015 taxes.  I just had my CPA do the amendment. No issues took maybe 4-6 mo to get the refund back.

[cculbertson81 43]

On 9/10/2019 at 12:24 AM, Cheddar Cheeze said:

While in the process of adjusting my wife's status, she has FINALLY received her SSN. For this past tax season, I had to file Married Filing Separately because she had no SSN, and I did not want her to apply for ITIN thinking that it would complicate things. The SSA not issuing the SSN at the time we applied was an extreme headache but that's a whole another story. In filing as MFS, this resulted in me owing the IRS. So now that we got her SSN we would like to amend from MFS to MFJ as we would receive a refund. My question is, is anyone out there in somewhat of the same situation as us? Has anyone successfully amended their tax return filing from MFS to MFJ?  What was your experience?

I just submitted our amended returns (Federal and NY) on 9/18 after her Social Security card arrived. She already had a SSN from back in college working as an international student, but it was in her maiden name so we waited for the new card to come to make sure all names were in her married name. I'll update here after we get our additional refund.

[Cheddar Cheeze 15]

13 hours ago, cculbertson81 said:

I just submitted our amended returns (Federal and NY) on 9/18 after her Social Security card arrived. She already had a SSN from back in college working as an international student, but it was in her maiden name so we waited for the new card to come to make sure all names were in her married name. I'll update here after we get our additional refund.

Thanks for your input. Yes, please keep us updated. Did you have a tax preparer assist you? I'm thinking of having one so that I don't make any mistakes.

[cculbertson81 43]

No, we didn't use a tax professional. I completed the original returns as Married Filing Separately back in February using H&R Block's software and completed the amended returns in the software as well. Because she was still living in Japan for the 2018 tax year we had to include a signed declaration that we wanted to treat her as a resident alien for the tax year and report her income in Japan. It was all covered by the foreign earned income exclusion so we had no additional tax liability.