question about prior income on i-864

[darth vader 133]

My U.S.C. wife lives abroad in Canada with me. I am the only beneficiary. My wife has now obtained a U.S. job that pays well above the current income requirement. We are filling up the i-864 and just noticed an error. Usually my wife files U.S. taxes with a foreign tax credit instead of foreign income exclusion which makes her "total income" or "adjusted gross income on 1040" high. However, we mistakenly claimed foreign income exclusion for 2019. This makes prior 3 years total income figures look like

 

2020 - $80k USD

2019 - $6k USD

2018 - $36k USD

 

If we file an amendment for 2019 to replace the foreign income exclusion with foreign tax credit the total income for 2019 would go up to $60k USD, and the prior years income would look like

 

2020 - $80k USD

2019 - $60k USD

2018 - $36k USD

 

Now, we are curious which one of the below we should do.

 

OPTION 1 - Report the 2019 income as $6k USD - as it appears on current 2019 tax transcripts, and leave a note on i-864 explaining the situation, saying we are filing an amendment for 2019 which will bring the total income up from $6k USD to $60k USD and we will bring the updated transcript to the interview/will upload to ceac once available.

 

OPTION 2 - Report the 2019 income as $60k USD (different than what appears on current 2019 tax transcripts), and leave a note on i-864 explaining the situation saying we are filing an amendment for 2019 and hence the income reported is $60k USD (as per our amendment filed), and not $6k USD as shown on tax transcript. We will also say in our note on i-864 that we will bring the updated transcript to the interview/will upload to ceac once available.

 

Please note, we plan to only send 2020 tax docs (we filed late so transcripts are not available yet). So, unless asked for we don't plan to send transcript for 2019 and 2018. Which option should we go for? Do the C.O. really care for second last years' income if petitioner has current U.S. income or should we go with option 2 and make sure the numbers listed are the best possible ones? The only fear I have for option 2 is that what if amendment is rejected for some reason/not processed (IRS can be weird), than C.O. may see a mismatch in what is reported on i-864 and what IRS records say (can they see petitioner's IRS records directly?). Hope I was able to explain our situation clearly. Please ask questions if you have any, and please advise on what we should do. Thank you.

Edited August 9, 2021 by darth vader

[darth vader 133]

Inviting @NikLR, @Ontarkie, @Lemonslice , @Abhikochar, @CGs_Mother, @Hawk Riders, @JFH for their advice.

[CGs_Mother 114]

Unfortunately, I don't have any advice to give you about this. We've always filed MFS since we lived apart. This tax year (2021) will be the first where we file together, and that will only be for the last half of the year. I would contact BDO about this though - their cross-border tax section are very willing to give you some free advice if you have a very specific question (which you do). They have helped me for free quite a bit. 

[NikLR 13,232]

Montreal is concerned about current income not prior. Don’t worry about the one low year. Just keep it as is. 
 

also you mentioned before you were doing an intent to establish domicile which is something I’ve never recommended for Montreal. If your wife can live and work in the USA prior to interview, do it.