Potential minor complication with N-400(mom)

[Worstg8mer 0]

Hi, we are a family of four- one USC by birth (M29 my brother), two LPR (F27 me and my mom, 59), and father (non citizen living in home country).  

My mom who became LPR in 2015 by my USC brother's IR5 sponsorship wants to file N-400 to be a citizen. But I think she may have some minor complication due to tax. Mom, me and my brother live in the US, but my dad is in our home country. He is ill and relies on governmental aid, and my brother who makes a lot more money (110K+/year) than me (21K/year) and mom (22-26k/year for last 5 years). So, my dad's income is zero. I was discussing about this my older brother who handles mom's tax (she is technophobic and isn't great at English), and long story short, for the first two years that mom worked after being LPR, she was able to file MFJ but at some point, online programs didn't allow it . So he filed her tax by paper for the next year, but then he got tired of it so he just filed mom's tax as "single" online since (all standard deduction). I was really alarmed by this, but my mom and sister think it should be fine because she is basically overpaying her taxes, and she hasn't taken any kind of tax credit benefits or deductions other than 401K from her job. She did EITC one time in 2017, and my quick math work does show that she would have gotten more money back had she filed MFJ. Somebody in reddit told me that my mom might be deportable (!!!) if she had taken 10K or more tax refund by fraud, but I honestly don't see how she could have taken that much refund even if legitimately with that low yearly income. 

So, veterans of VJ, what should I do? If mom filed N-400 right now with her 2020 tax return (which she filed as single), will she face problems with USCIS? Or will USCIS even care? I don't want my mom to be deported, and I am kind of blaming myself for not being more pro-active with my brother doing his taxes. 

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by Worstg8mer

[Crazy Cat 41,845]

If she filed taxes every year, it is probably not an issue with the N-400.  However, it sounds like she has filed incorrectly.  How did she file a joint return?  Does her husband have a US social security number or an individual tax identification number?  Filing single was definitely the incorrect status for filing.   If I were her, I would find a competent tax pro and amend my taxes correctly.  

Edited March 29, 2021 by Lucky Cat

[Worstg8mer 0]

My memory isn't super great so I could be wrong in what my remember - but from what my brother told me, in the past he was able to file mom's tax MFJ without either SSN/ITIN from my dad (neither which my dad has),  but then something about tax law changed, so since then he filed hers single. I am sure there are people who are probably in this kind of situation, but I haven't been able to find many anecdotes. I got a green card through her sponsorship (F2B) and USCIS didn't say anything about her tax transcript which she indicated "sing'le". 

Edited March 29, 2021 by Worstg8mer

[Timona 4,207]

1 hour ago, Worstg8mer said:

Hi, we are a family of four- one USC by birth (M29 my brother), two LPR (F27 me and my mom, 59), and father (non citizen living in home country).  

My mom who became LPR in 2015 by my USC brother's IR5 sponsorship wants to file N-400 to be a citizen. But I think she may have some minor complication due to tax. Mom, me and my brother live in the US, but my dad is in our home country. He is ill and relies on governmental aid, and my brother who makes a lot more money (110K+/year) than me (21K/year) and mom (22-26k/year for last 5 years). So, my dad's income is zero. I was discussing about this my older brother who handles mom's tax (she is technophobic and isn't great at English), and long story short, for the first two years that mom worked after being LPR, she was able to file MFJ but at some point, online programs didn't allow it . So he filed her tax by paper for the next year, but then he got tired of it so he just filed mom's tax as "single" online since (all standard deduction). I was really alarmed by this, but my mom and sister think it should be fine because she is basically overpaying her taxes, and she hasn't taken any kind of tax credit benefits or deductions other than 401K from her job. She did EITC one time in 2017, and my quick math work does show that she would have gotten more money back had she filed MFJ. Somebody in reddit told me that my mom might be deportable (!!!) if she had taken 10K or more tax refund by fraud, but I honestly don't see how she could have taken that much refund even if legitimately with that low yearly income. 

So, veterans of VJ, what should I do? If mom filed N-400 right now with her 2020 tax return (which she filed as single), will she face problems with USCIS? Or will USCIS even care? I don't want my mom to be deported, and I am kind of blaming myself for not being more pro-active with my brother doing his taxes. 

 

 

Who is telling the story here? The brother or the sister (OP, I assume)

 

1 hour ago, Worstg8mer said:

My memory isn't super great so I could be wrong in what my remember - but from what my brother told me, in the past he was able to file mom's tax MFJ without either SSN/ITIN from my dad (neither which my dad has),  but then something about tax law changed, so since then he filed hers single. I am sure there are people who are probably in this kind of situation, but I haven't been able to find many anecdotes. I got a green card through her sponsorship (F2B) and USCIS didn't say anything about her tax transcript which she indicated "sing'le". 

 

Just curious. What is your country of origin and when did you file F2B?

 

My apologies. I am not knowledgeable in taxes. So I will let others chime in

 

Edited March 29, 2021 by Timona

[Worstg8mer 0]

Well I did AOS in the US because I was F1 student before. Why does my countrymatter?

 

I m the sister, my bad. I didn't have good sleep last night.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Worstg8mer

[Wuozopo 4,293]

22 hours ago, Worstg8mer said:

So, veterans of VJ, what should I do? If mom filed N-400 right now with her 2020 tax return (which she filed as single), will she face problems with USCIS? Or will USCIS even care? I don't want my mom to be deported, and I am kind of blaming myself for not being more pro-active with my brother doing his taxes. 

Any issues you perceive are with the IRS, not the USCIS. The application asks if you ever failed to file, not if you filed correctly. That’s for the IRS to determine. The people dealing with the N-400 are not auditing her tax return and probably don’t know the subtleties of tax law anyway. She filed. I don’t see an issue with her citizenship application. 

 

[Wuozopo 4,293]

As far as the IRS side goes, I personally would just let it ride. They will inform you if they think something is amiss with the filing and you can sort it with them if they challenge you. I believe the issue your brother found is that even a Married Filing Separately return asks for the name and SSN/ITIN of the spouse. The IRS says to put “NRA”, which stands for nonresident alien, in the SSN field. Most tax software programs will not accept non numeric characters in that field and will reject for efiling. He would have to print the return, write in NRA by hand, and file by mail. Going forward, he might want to do that to file with a proper filing status.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Wuozopo

[Worstg8mer 0]

Thank you @Wuozopo

[Villanelle 4,122]

28 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

Any issues you perceive are with the IRS, not the USCIS. The application asks if you ever failed to file, not if you filed correctly. That’s for the IRS to determine. The people dealing with the N-400 are not auditing her tax return and probably don’t know the subtleties of tax law anyway. She filed. I don’t see an issue with her citizenship application. 

 

I agree with the majority of this. USCIS is not auditing the tax return. They will look at it though and IMO choosing between single/married (MFJ/MFS) is not a subtlety of tax law. Choosing head of household vs single/married I would consider a subtlety they dont  dig in deeper to see if you qualify under IRS guidelines to use or not. But choosing an incorrect marital status is something they would notice. It may not be a big deal though or it might. Your mom basically 'lied' to another gov agency about her marital status on a form she signed to be accurate. It wasnt malicious and it resulted in her (most likely) paying more in taxes- but those details dont negate the fact that it was done wrong. Ones marital status is reviewed at naturalization as well as the initial process used to obtain the GC. 

 

It sounds like the marriage was disclosed properly on all previous immigration forms so thats good. You did say for your F2B you guys did send moms taxes filled out as single and nothing was said of it. That doesnt mean nothing will be said again. As already explained they do use the n400 as a 'last chance' to review everything in your file is correct/was done correctly because once they approve citizenship its very hard to undo it. 

 

So your choices right now are to either let it be or to amend the wrong returns. Personally I would amend them. @Wuozopo explained above how to file w/o a SSN or ITIN using paper. If you can afford to hire a CPA to file the corrections do so- or perhaps brother who earns over 100K and caused this 'problem' can/should foot this bill. Otherwise Mom is going to end up in an interview where they may have an issue with how she filed. She will be in the interview ALONE and you described her as being technophobic and 'not great at English'. An aggressive line of questioning by the Officer on this may cause her anxiety and could result in them feeling like she is not fluent enough in English or is trying to hide something- which she is not. You never know what the temperament is of the Officer who will be interviewing you and you need to be prepared to interact with someone who is not very pleasant or patient if thats who you get. 

 

Either way mom is in no danger of being deported. She did not commit massive level tax fraud and any corrections she needs to make to previously filed tax returns are both still able to be done and are allowed to be done with the IRS. Again though I would file the amendments (either myself or hire someone) simply for the peace of mind.  I would be uncomfortable sending my mom in knowing there may be an issue she is not prepared to address- especially if I could correct it for her ahead of time. 

 

[Worstg8mer 0]

Yes, her marriage was properly disclosed in her GC form back when she applied in 2015, so that's not a problem at all - and she doesn't intend to claim that she is single in her N-400 either. 

 

Yeah...we were at a really low financial point when mom got her GC and started to work, and both my elder brother and me were students at that time, so it was really difficult to get everything right (we tried to do everything right, but with almost nobody to help us and mom being completely ignorant in tax laws, the responsibility fell on my elder brother, who was also inexperienced). It is kind of a stupid blame game now, but now I wish that my brother had told me to help him instead of doing everything alone and ends up with half-### work (it's a recurring topic of arguments between me and him because he says stuff like "I did everything because I am an elder sibling," and I would say "did you ever ask for help?") He is very detailed in his own stuff but can be surprisingly sloppy in other things, even if it's family matter. He will never admit it, but I think I know more about tax laws than him. But the same time, he did do so much as an elder sibling so I feel bad for asking for more help. 

 

Here is another thought, though. I have  been considering to have my mom quit her job now that I am an LPR with almost unlimited work authorization (except for positions that requires USC), so maybe she can just wait another 5 years without working and then apply N-400 to avoid this problem altogether? No income, no tax transcript. Besides, I am not sure if she might want to go back to Korea someday. 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Worstg8mer

[Wuozopo 4,293]

@Worstg8mer
I just want to clarify my opinion given earlier. It isn’t a piece of advice, but only what I personally would choose for myself.  
 

Yes the single filing status is not correct. I completely agree. Did Mom purposely scam the IRS? Will the IRS notice? Does an actual person examine the return and deliberate on it? Does the IRS know Dad in Korea is still alive? I don’t think so. Not for a minute. So the reason I would just forget about it and move on is because a CPA would charge you hundreds of dollars and the tax owed would be identical. So while you have paid through the nose to a CPA just to be a perfectly honest person, you won’t be making any reparations to the IRS for cheating them out of any taxes. Do people make honest mistakes on TurboTax and are never questioned by the IRS? Absolutely. Do H&R Block professional preparers get international situations wrong and file incorrectly? Yes, there are plenty examples on just this website.

 

As a newcomer, I used to be afraid of the IRS but my wife has changed my attitude. How many tax returns has my wife filed for herself single/married/widowed/remarried without a CPA or paid service? 50 years worth. Were they all perfectly correct? Probably not. How many times has she been audited by the IRS. ZERO!  Mom can only amend for three years from filing. If there are older returns, then you pretty much have to let them stand as is. 

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

Single filer status is for people who are unmarried and do not qualify for any other filing status. Even if you are still married, you are considered unmarried by the IRS if you did not live with your spouse for the last six months of the tax yea

[Wuozopo 4,293]

1 hour ago, NigeriaorBust said:

Single filer status is for people who are unmarried and do not qualify for any other filing status. Even if you are still married, you are considered unmarried by the IRS if you did not live with your spouse for the last six months of the tax yea

You also have to pay over half the cost of keeping up your home and have a dependent child living in that home more than half the year. That doesn’t work for her. 

[Crazy Cat 41,845]

1 minute ago, Wuozopo said:

You also have to pay over half the cost of keeping up your home and have a dependent child living in that home more than half the year. That doesn’t work for her. 

Head of Household?

[Wuozopo 4,293]

40 minutes ago, Lucky Cat said:

Head of Household?

Yes, I said that wrong. It goes with head of household.  If living apart, she would have to have a legal separation as part of a divorce case for example to be single. (Or she could be head of household even if still married if she had children at home.) Just because the spouse did not live with her the last six months does not punch her “single” ticket.