Doing taxes when married to foreign spouse

[sam3435 2]

Pardon me if this has already been asked. I am super super confused.

 

I130 petition pending

next steps are NVC and embassy interview

 

married in 2023, wifey is in India. 

 

I have been filing single ever since. Last year I filed single for year 2022 return.

 

Now, I called 4 different tax services (local to my area). all of them said file it single since wifey is not in the US and don't have a ssn. 

 

I read the IRS webpage and they are saying to file it married either separate or jointly. 

 

Are these tax services trolling or just don't know what's up?? 

 

If you have been in my shoes, I would really appreciate if you say what you did when you were filing this for the very first time. Also, when wifey is here is it just a matter of switching from MFS to MFJ on the form (next year of course). 

 

Thank you all!

[Crazy Cat 41,756]

21 minutes ago, sam3435 said:

If you have been in my shoes, I would really appreciate if you say what you did when you were filing this for the very first time. Also, when wifey is here is it just a matter of switching from MFS to MFJ on the form (next year of course). 

Legally, you shouldn't file as single if you are married. I filed Married-Filing Separately.  You can amend to MFJ after your wife arrives and receives a SSN.  This is an IRS issue, not an immigration issue.

 

*Moved to the Tax and Finances During US Immigration forum area***

Edited February 26 by Crazy Cat

[sam3435 2]

Thank you, I appreciate your response! 

 

Ok, so two of my friends who went through this process said they did it single...and it did not cause any problems at the embassy stage of things.

 

lol I am super confused now.

 

Part of me just want to do it single and once she comes here, I do it MFJ. 

[JeanneAdil 6,482]

Tax services want to process online returns as that is easy and done with fast

to file MFJ  you have to file paper as you need to send in the requested original documents to prove marriage and ID of the alien and file the W7 form for spouse's ITIN

with form 2555 to exclude 

For tax year 2023, the maximum exclusion is $120,000 per person.

 

Standard deduction for 2023 for MFJ is worth it to me 

 

For 2023, the standard deduction increased to $27,700 for married couples filing jointly, 

follow IRS to file either MFS or MFJ

 

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-spouse

 

Filing MFS or MFJ is not hard /i did it for my spouse in Morocco back in 2010 tax season

[JeanneAdil 6,482]

sorry the exclusion  is for foreign income for the alien spouse  on the 2555 form

 

[Stein 276]

I filed single from Vietnam (stayed there during COVID) and then filed an amended return when we got to the US and she got her SSN.  Got a refund due to extra standard deduction for being married.

[InaneTripe 27]

On 2/26/2024 at 4:08 PM, sam3435 said:

Pardon me if this has already been asked. I am super super confused.

 

I130 petition pending

next steps are NVC and embassy interview

 

married in 2023, wifey is in India. 

 

I have been filing single ever since. Last year I filed single for year 2022 return.

 

Now, I called 4 different tax services (local to my area). all of them said file it single since wifey is not in the US and don't have a ssn. 

 

I read the IRS webpage and they are saying to file it married either separate or jointly. 

 

Are these tax services trolling or just don't know what's up?? 

 

If you have been in my shoes, I would really appreciate if you say what you did when you were filing this for the very first time. Also, when wifey is here is it just a matter of switching from MFS to MFJ on the form (next year of course). 

 

Thank you all!

After our marriage but before my wife arrived in the US, I always filed as "Married filing separately". This caused problems with my online tax service because they required my wife's SSN even for MFS, but of course she didn't have one. Therefore, I filed paper returns as MFS with my wife's name listed on the return. In fact, this was one of the documents I submitted as proof of a bona-fide marriage. I am not sure how much probative value this particular document had but I figured it wouldn't hurt.

 

 Now that my wife is in the US, I'll file as MFJ for TY 2023.

[sam3435 2]

Hi InaneTripe, I am filing MFS and I will sending my tax documents to IRS in the mail (I couldn't find a single website who can do efile with 'NRA' as input for wife's SSN/ITIN). I used a tax preparer for this year. 

 

My question:

 

Did your paper mail got processed on time and you were able to get your tax transcript in about 6-8 weeks? after filing it? 

 

This is making me nervous because IRS can have a backlog and not process the damn tax forms for like months and I would need my tax transcript for year 2023 for the affidavit of support of my wife. 

 

So if you can share your experience on how long did it take for you to get your paper mail tax return processing would take a lot of anxiety away for me. My refund can come in late summer and I don't care. I just want my tax transcript available by end of April/mid-may. 

 

 

Edited March 9 by sam3435