2009 Tax Return-married but may file single? Please help!

[Carlos' Wife 9]

I am married and we are currently waiting for our case to be closed at the national visa center. I always file my taxes online with turbo tax...however, it looks like in order to file online with turbo tax (even for "married filing separately) I need to put in a social security number or tax i.d. number for my husband (who does not reside in the united states).

I called the IRS and they said I had to include the W-7 form with my taxes filled out (by hand) in order to receive a tax i.d. number for my husband. I am not planning to claim his income on my taxes.

I was wondering if I should just FILE SINGLE for my taxes due this year????? Would this cause any problems in the future for us????

Please help.

Thank you!

[ceadsearc 516]

Not an expert, but that sounds like tax fraud to me. Hopefully someone will know better. You may qualify for Head of Household status if he lives overseas, or you can mail your return in and leave the social blank/write "NRA" (non-resident alien)/etc. at the top.

[Saylin 1,605]

I am married and we are currently waiting for our case to be closed at the national visa center. I always file my taxes online with turbo tax...however, it looks like in order to file online with turbo tax (even for "married filing separately) I need to put in a social security number or tax i.d. number for my husband (who does not reside in the united states).

I called the IRS and they said I had to include the W-7 form with my taxes filled out (by hand) in order to receive a tax i.d. number for my husband. I am not planning to claim his income on my taxes.

I was wondering if I should just FILE SINGLE for my taxes due this year????? Would this cause any problems in the future for us????

Please help.

Thank you!

You can't file single though since you're married, it'd be a bad idea IMO. I know it's gonna require more work by doing taxes by hand, but you really don't have a choice. My husband (the USC) has to do the same thing this year. He's always done them online, but this year he can't since he got married during the 2010 tax year and I don't have an SSN or ITIN. If you file 'married filing seperately', you don't need an ITIN/W7 form, you can just write in 'NR' or 'NRA' in the SSN field. I discussed this with the IRS yesterday on the phone.

Edited January 27, 2011 by Saylin

[YuAndDan 153]

Avoid filing as single, I have seen a post not too long ago where visa got denied because of that, the consulate questioned bonafide relationship due to person filing as single.

EX: http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42423&view=findpost&p=563619

[Carlos' Wife 9]

ah ha! thank you for the information! I thought I had read somewhere a while ago that you could file single then file a change as married when your spouse comes to the us.

However, I will buckle down and do my taxes manually this year

[Inky 1,110]

Another recent post by someone else said they filed single even tho they were married and now they are having problems with USCIS and likely will have problems with IRS.

[Carlos' Wife 9]

Another recent post by someone else said they filed single even tho they were married and now they are having problems with USCIS and likely will have problems with IRS

WOW! Really glad I asked! Thank you for the information! Going the "long route" with paper filing for SURE now!!

[Carlos' Wife 9]

You can't file single though since you're married, it'd be a bad idea IMO. I know it's gonna require more work by doing taxes by hand, but you really don't have a choice. My husband (the USC) has to do the same thing this year. He's always done them online, but this year he can't since he got married during the 2010 tax year and I don't have an SSN or ITIN. If you file 'married filing seperately', you don't need an ITIN/W7 form, you can just write in 'NR' or 'NRA' in the SSN field. I discussed this with the IRS yesterday on the phone.

Thank you! I called the IRS today and after about 45 minutes on the phone (with a poor guy that seemed it was his 1st day on the job)I didn't get very far with getting useful information.

Visa Journey is SO AWESOME!!

[Wayne and Claudia 40]

If you can file HOH do so. If not get an ITIN for your foreign spouse. It's not hard to do. If you want to know why I say this then read on. Hope this helps.

You can only file HOH if you meet all five of these requirements (from the IRS guidelines):

1.You file a separate return.

2.You paid more than half the cost of keeping up your home for the tax year.

3.Your spouse did not live in your home during the last 6 months of the tax year. Your spouse is considered to live in your home even if he or she is temporarily absent due to special circumstances.

4.Your home was the main home of your child, stepchild, or eligible foster child for more than half the year.

5.You must be able to claim an exemption for the child. However, you meet this test if you cannot claim the exemption only because the noncustodial parent can claim the child using the rules for children of divorced or separated parents.

NOTE: Nonresident alien spouse. You are considered unmarried for head of household purposes if your spouse was a nonresident alien at any time during the year and you do not choose to treat your nonresident spouse as a resident alien. However, your spouse is not a qualifying person for head of household purposes. You must have another qualifying person and meet the other tests to be eligible to file as a head of household.

In a nutshell: You can file HOH if you are married to a foreign spouse without residence status if you have an eligible dependent to claim (child most likely). Otherwise you can't do it.

ITIN's are not difficult to obtain and you don't have to send off to Austin, TX, for it either. Just google Acceptance Agent (name of your state) and follow this guide http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1915.pdf . Just take the required documents to them with your tax form and in moments you are done. You won't receive the number right away but it will save time and some headaches.

Personally, I filed HOH and even when the CO officer asked for my most recent tax forms nothing was said about it not being jointly (my son is my dependent). My accountant will file my amended return from 2009 in a few weeks and then complete our 2010 taxes as Married filing Jointly for both tax years.

[the rock 0]

I have a similar a situation. I got married on Jan 11, 2011 and I am wondering how do I file my taxes. I found out that since I was married in January, I have to file single for the year 2010. Is this true?

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

I have a similar a situation. I got married on Jan 11, 2011 and I am wondering how do I file my taxes. I found out that since I was married in January, I have to file single for the year 2010. Is this true?

Yes, you were single in 2010, and that is the tax year in question. File single if you were married in January 2011.

[Magic_Knight 0]

This is scaring me now. For 2009, I filed as single, since the tax person my mom usually goes to said I could file single that year, and had 3 years to amend it. So that's what I did and was planning on doing again this year. I am an October Filer. What should I do? Amend my 2009 return now? I don't want my wife's visa to get denied. This is a stupid predicament if it's true. Has anyone filed single and and received a visa still? Thanks.

[Inky 1,110]

Its about moral character, if you file single when you are married you are lying to the IRS. It shows poor moral character.

Don't know about visas but if you are getting a green card or citizenship with taxes that were filed single when married, you will likely have the same problem if you are not filing the taxes correctly. They will look at moral character and the process will be a lot harder.

[cactus john 1]

If you did file as single, being of a low moral character, how do you go about ammending it. 1040X form? Then do you just check the box on "status" and provide a reason for the ammenmet or do you have to completely re-do your tax forms for the year your morals were not up to standard...?

[moonandsun 16]

If I file 'married filing seperate', can I ammend later to 'married filing jointly'?