Filing taxes before spouse gets here

[Dogwood_Poet 16]

Since the first of the year is almost here, what have some of you done about filing taxes before your spouse gets her/his SSN?

I have thought about just filing single and doing an adjusted return after my wife gets here sometime this spring just so I could get my refund early and also have the latest tax return for her interview. I could also go to the trouble of getting her an ITIN but I don't know if it would be worth it since she should be here sometime mid-Spring.

Or I could just file an extension and wait until she is here. There will be no penalties since I usually get a refund every year.

Thanks to everyone for their advice/tips!

Edited November 21, 2006 by Dogwood_Poet

[Creel 0]

If you are married you can not file "single"!!! You can file "married and filing separately", which might work in your case. You would not need to refile when she got here. I do not think she would need to file anything as she is not in the country and not a resident. I'd check with an accountant or at least read up a little on the IRS website. It has a lot of info.

[payxibka 10,045]

If you are married you can not file "single"!!! You can file "married and filing separately", which might work in your case. You would not need to refile when she got here. I do not think she would need to file anything as she is not in the country and not a resident. I'd check with an accountant or at least read up a little on the IRS website. It has a lot of info.

To file married filing seperate (which would be the correct status) requires you to identify your spouse and her SSN/ITIN. My suggestion is just do get the ITIN and file proper (MFJ or MFS) the first time rather than extend or amend.

Edited November 21, 2006 by fwaguy

[calOC 0]

I had the same situation this year when I filed tax for 05. After talking to my accountant and calling IRS, I filed as 'married filing sepeartely' and wrote spouse's SSN as 'unknown'. A couple of months back we amended the return to married filing jointly. I had figured this would be less painful than trying to get ITIN - one has to submit copies of IDs (passport etc) for the non-resident applying for ITIN and these have to notarized by a US notary. To get that done my wife would have had to go to the nearest US consulate which is 5 hours away.

Since the first of the year is almost here, what have some of you done about filing taxes before your spouse gets her/his SSN?

I have thought about just filing single and doing an adjusted return after my wife gets here sometime this spring just so I could get my refund early and also have the latest tax return for her interview. I could also go to the trouble of getting her an ITIN but I don't know if it would be worth it since she should be here sometime mid-Spring.

Or I could just file an extension and wait until she is here. There will be no penalties since I usually get a refund every year.

Thanks to everyone for their advice/tips!

[Dogwood_Poet 16]

Sounds like the best bet would be just to file an extension and once she gets here and gets her SSN, then file our taxes. Since she is staying at her family's farm she will not have any income to report.

I am hoping to have her here by mid-2007, so that would still give me a few months to file our return.

I will do some more checking at the IRS site and see if they have any advice as well.

[lucyrich 20]

I'll add another voice that says don't file as "single", even if you later plan to amend the return.

It's likely you'll eventually have to show the tax returns to the USCIS as part of the I-751 filing for removal of conditions. Or you may need them for the I-864 affidavit of support if that's not already completed. Either way, they'll want to verify that you're conducting yourselves as a bona fide married couple.

If you sign a "single" return, your signature certifies to the IRS under penalty of perjury that you are not married at all. How can you reconcile swearing to the IRS that you're not married with the fact that you're trying to prove to the USCIS that you are not only married, but that your marriage is bona fide? Maybe you'll eventually be able to explain away the mistake, but it's better to avoid raising the issue. After you're married, only file using one of the options that's legally available for a married person.

The other options already discussed should be OK.

[Yodrak 7]

Dogwood_Poet,

Why in the world would you file as 'single' if you are not?

When the time to file your 2006 income tax return arrives determine how much money your wife has earned in 2006, figure out if you'll save money by filing married-individual or married-joint, and either way submit an ITIN request form for your wife, with it's supporting documentation, along with your tax return.

Yodrak

Since the first of the year is almost here, what have some of you done about filing taxes before your spouse gets her/his SSN?

I have thought about just filing single and doing an adjusted return after my wife gets here sometime this spring just so I could get my refund early and also have the latest tax return for her interview. I could also go to the trouble of getting her an ITIN but I don't know if it would be worth it since she should be here sometime mid-Spring.

Or I could just file an extension and wait until she is here. There will be no penalties since I usually get a refund every year.

Thanks to everyone for their advice/tips!

Edited November 22, 2006 by Yodrak

[AUSC 0]

I would file "married filing jointly". Just you need to attach W7 and a notorized copy of your wife's passport. Since you have enough time to have the form W7 completed, I would take this route. This is the proper way of doing it and you will save quite a bit of money as well. This will serve as one of the marriage proofs for USCIS too.

[twood2k 0]

I would file "married filing jointly". Just you need to attach W7 and a notorized copy of your wife's passport. Since you have enough time to have the form W7 completed, I would take this route. This is the proper way of doing it and you will save quite a bit of money as well. This will serve as one of the marriage proofs for USCIS too.

I did the same as above.

[Killer_Clown_2009 0]

We filed as married last year, it was actually really easy to get an ITIN. Was no hassle at all, of course we are only 30 mins from a IRS office so we didn't need to have the docs certified, but the form itself was no huge deal and I only had to show my passport as id.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

We filed as married last year, it was actually really easy to get an ITIN. Was no hassle at all, of course we are only 30 mins from a IRS office so we didn't need to have the docs certified, but the form itself was no huge deal and I only had to show my passport as id.

My experience was similar to this. My husband, who is still overseas, and I filed MFJ. I went to the local IRS office with the ITIN request form, our 1040 w/attachments, and held out a certified (not notarized) copy of his passport, which he didn't even look at hard. The IRS gentleman took the forms, typed something into his pc, then told me to wait a few weeks for the ITIN. I got it soon after. No big deal at all! Try it, you'll like it

Edited November 23, 2006 by szsz

[Artegal 1]

As others have said you can't file single if you are actually married. I would either complete the W7 for the ITIN or file for an extension. In my case I filed for the W7 and yes my wife did have to go to the US Embassy in her country and get a copy of her passport notorized by the Consular. When you file your tax return with a W7 it cannot be filed electronically--it must be a manual return submitted to the Phil. PA office. There was an extreme delay in my situation and the IRS paid me interest on top of my return as an apology for the delay--however they also sent me a 1099 the next tax year calling the interest taxable income--go figure what a twisted scam they run. Anyway either way you will have a delayed refund because you will file the W7 or request an extension. Also note that when my refund arrived the check was sent out in a paper check not EFT to my bank account--but the paper check was written to both of us as Mr and Mrs. And therefore because of the Patriot Act no banks would cash the check--until I showed all of our VISA packets showing that I was a sponsor and financially responsible for my wife--finally after that they did allow me to deposit the check.

[gwsmith01 1]

Since the first of the year is almost here, what have some of you done about filing taxes before your spouse gets her/his SSN?

I have thought about just filing single and doing an adjusted return after my wife gets here sometime this spring just so I could get my refund early and also have the latest tax return for her interview. I could also go to the trouble of getting her an ITIN but I don't know if it would be worth it since she should be here sometime mid-Spring.

Or I could just file an extension and wait until she is here. There will be no penalties since I usually get a refund every year.

Thanks to everyone for their advice/tips!

I went through a similar situation a few years ago. We didn't do a ITTN. Since I filed the I-864 in Jan 2005, all that was required at that time was to submit ITRs for '03, '02, and '01. I filed for a 4-momth extension, where I thought the spouse would be here in plenty of time to file a joint return, where she would have her SS number. She had her CR-1 interview in May '05. Since she had a long AR, which lasted 4 1/2 months, she didn't arrive here on the CR-1 until October 2005.

I spoke to some IRS people about the situation. I was told that since my wife didn't have a SS number or ITTN, I could file as single, then file an amended return when she got her SS number. I went ahead and filed a single return electronically with a very small refund. Once she got her SS number, we amended our return, which took about 3 months to get a much bigger refund.

[Michael and Milahjean 0]

I plan to file married joint for 2006 taxes. My asawa also will be arriving here in the spring of 2007. I have sent her the W7 form to sign and return to me and she has already obtained a certified copy of her passport from the regional Dept of Foreign Affairs office. This is not an actual notarized copy of the passport but is a legal size DFA letterhead document basically authenticating her passport information listing her biographic info including a raised dry seal. I will submit a copy of the bio page of her passport as well when I file next year. I don't want to deal with the ammended return stuff, and I realize that the refund will be delayed for the processing of the ITIN. She has no income, so that additional deduction for me is definitely worth filing with her ITIN.

[alohaspirit 0]

If you all know Mr. Ray Bacon, he suggested me to file as single or head of household if you don't have ITN or SSN. Then when my wife arrived & got her SSN, I amended my return by changing it to married filing jointly. This was no problem.