Filing taxes after moving to the U.S. (MERGED)

[Mike E 11,741]

6 minutes ago, caustaxguy said:

MFJ. In your case, did you ever file anything like 6013h etc.

Of course not.

 

I simply follow what turbotax.con tells me to do. At the time I filed MFJ, I reviewed rules as turbotax presented them, and concluded my wife had the right to be a resident alien. 
 

If we filed MFS, my wife’s lawyer would have blown a gasket. And if I saiid “but 6013h” she would have said that in 25 years of practice she has never heard of such a thing.

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, caustaxguy said:

or simply just filed MFJ?

We simply filed MFJ. If both spouses have SSNs it is trivial.

[caustaxguy 2]

33 minutes ago, Mike E said:

Of course not.

 

I simply follow what turbotax.con tells me to do. At the time I filed MFJ, I reviewed rules as turbotax presented them, and concluded my wife had the right to be a resident alien. 
 

If we filed MFS, my wife’s lawyer would have blown a gasket. And if I saiid “but 6013h” she would have said that in 25 years of practice she has never heard of such a thing.

 

 

 

We simply filed MFJ. If both spouses have SSNs it is trivial.

You are right on the lawyer/accountant not knowing what 6013h is. I talked to two separate cross-border specialized accountants yesterday and today - both said since I am a GC holder, I should just file MFJ. The second accountant I talked to did not know what 6013h is. I also plan to take FEIE as I worked in Canada for ~4 months in 2022. That should be ok as well?

Edited April 6, 2023 by caustaxguy

[Scandi 4,173]

3 hours ago, Mike E said:

 

Like 364/365 people who moved to the US, my wife was a part year resident the year she moved. She wasn't even an LPR that first year and part of the next year. We filed MFJ each time.

Same, I moved to the US in Oct 2016, married Nov 2016 and only got my greencard in Jul 2017. Me and my USC husband filed married jointly for tax year 2016 (ie I wasn't even a greencard holder at that time, neither in 2016 or at the time of the tax filing) and didn't have to add any odd forms etc. Easy peasy. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by Scandi

[caustaxguy 2]

5 minutes ago, Scandi said:

Same, I moved to the US in Oct 2016, married Nov 2016 and only got my greencard in Jul 2017. Me and my USC husband filed married jointly for tax year 2016 (ie I wasn't even a greencard holder at that time) and didn't have to add any odd forms etc. Easy peasy. 

Thank you for sharing your experience. Did you ever visit U.S. before immigrating in Oct 2016? Also, did you have a SSN in 2016 (I would imagine you had one in order to MFJ)?

[Scandi 4,173]

3 minutes ago, caustaxguy said:

Thank you for sharing your experience. Did you ever visit U.S. before immigrating in Oct 2016? Also, did you have a SSN in 2016 (I would imagine you had one in order to MFJ)?

Yes I had been a tourist on VWP before, not that I understand what difference that makes? 😮

 

I applied for my SSN 3 days after entry into the US on a K-1, recieved the card ~4 weeks later.

[Dashinka 24,644]

16 minutes ago, Scandi said:

Same, I moved to the US in Oct 2016, married Nov 2016 and only got my greencard in Jul 2017. Me and my USC husband filed married jointly for tax year 2016 (ie I wasn't even a greencard holder at that time, neither in 2016 or at the time of the tax filing) and didn't have to add any odd forms etc. Easy peasy. 

We did the same but in 2014.  Fiancé came in September 2014, got married a few weeks later, got her SSN, and in early 2015 filed MFJ for 2014 tax year.  She got her GC in March after we filed (in fact we brought a copy of the tax return to her AOS interview). 

[Mike E 11,741]

42 minutes ago, caustaxguy said:

FEIE

I do not know what that is.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Mike E

[caustaxguy 2]

37 minutes ago, Scandi said:

Yes I had been a tourist on VWP before, not that I understand what difference that makes? 😮

 

I applied for my SSN 3 days after entry into the US on a K-1, recieved the card ~4 weeks later.

It could make a difference if you were in the U.S. since Jan 1 of the year (even if on tourist visa) as you can qualify to file as resident for entire year under substantial presence test.

[beloved_dingo 1,979]

There's no issue just filing MFJ, as others have stated. We have filed MFJ since 2019. Husband arrived in the U.S. in May 2019, and when we filed 2019 taxes in early 2020,  we had his SSN so it was not a problem at all to e-file.

[Chancy 6,243]

2 minutes ago, beloved_dingo said:

There's no issue just filing MFJ, as others have stated.

 

+1 to this.  I entered the US with my spouse visa in Nov 2021 and got my SSN within 2 weeks.  We e-filed MFJ in early 2022 for tax year 2021.  No issue getting our tax return processed by the IRS.

 

[Ontarkie 14,310]

~~Related threads merged. Please do not start more than one thread for the same or related topic.~~

~~Moved to Taxes and Finances, from the Canada forum.~~

[caustaxguy 2]

4 hours ago, Mike E said:

I do not know what that is.

Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

[Mike E 11,741]

9 minutes ago, caustaxguy said:

Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

Simpler to take the foreign income tax credit

[Scandi 4,173]

4 hours ago, caustaxguy said:

It could make a difference if you were in the U.S. since Jan 1 of the year (even if on tourist visa) as you can qualify to file as resident for entire year under substantial presence test.

I had not been in the US in 2016 other than the day I came on my K-1 in October of that year.

 

You're really looking to make this non-issue an issue, not sure why? Let it go, just file MFJ like the rest of us. 

[Scandi 4,173]

5 hours ago, Dashinka said:

We did the same but in 2014.  Fiancé came in September 2014, got married a few weeks later, got her SSN, and in early 2015 filed MFJ for 2014 tax year.  She got her GC in March after we filed (in fact we brought a copy of the tax return to her AOS interview). 

Yes we did that too, I felt so good about being able to bring an actual tax return transcript to my AOS interview, in addition to the very few other "evidences" we had managed to collect in just a few months. "Look at me, filing my taxes before even having a status in this country". 😂

Edited April 6, 2023 by Scandi