I am hoping to file my 2007 tax return and include my wife as joint filer. I understand that I have to send in a W-7 to request her ITIN(taxpayer ID Number). The form says that she has to sign it unless I have a power of attorney in English. I have sent her a prefilled PDF of the form which she is printing, signing and sending to me via express mail.


Beyond that, I have a few questions.

Does she need to sign the 1040 as well?

Can I file electronically with a program like TurboTax?

Thanks,
JC

I would think that an appropriately worded power of attorney could give you the authority to sign the return as well...

I doubt you could file electronically because the W-7 needs to be attached to the return...

Right but the biggest obstacle in the ITIN scenario is getting a notarized copy of her passport. Have you addressed how you're going to accomplish that?

She is taking care of that right now. Would a foreign notary be able to do this?

The IRS has specific notorial requirements in this situation... read the instructions and it will tell you what must be done in a foreign country....

I am actually on the phone with the IRS right now, but as is often the case with phone reps. I seem to know more about the subject than they do. Every time I ask a question, the guy says he has to go ask and puts me on hold for ten minutes.

IRS help line is one of the worst places to get tax advice and or information

I see that it states that an apostille must accompany the copy. However, it is not too specific about how it should be worded. Something tells me that I may end up needing to wait and file an amended return once she is here.

That's what we did. I wasn't about to mail passports back and forth from China. Too hard to replace.

I would extend first, then file MFS if need be and then amend and file MFJ later on if you are able.

Hello Colombiano.... I filed ltaxes for year 2006 with my husband and yes your wife will need to sign both, I actually called and an accountant for those questions and he told me that. Also you will need to get a copy of her Passport Notarized by the US Embassy in her country. You can try an ID but that wasn't enough for us, and it took longer. Also keep in mind that it will take about 2-3 months to get your wife's ITIN number. In my case the IRS agent called my husband in Lebanon, talked to him and asked him questions, while I was on the phone. We finally got his ITIN number in September of last year. Mind you I send in the request early February 2007. Good luck with that!

Nita

You don't need an Apostille, just tell your wife to go to the US Embassy with a copy of the w-7 and have the page with all her details on it Notarized by them. The IRS will accept that!
Hope this helps

Nita

Well. She doesn't live in Bogota, which is the only city that has a US embassy/consulate. As far as apostilles go, I think she would have to have that done at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, which is also in Bogota. It seems like the best thing is just to file as Single for now. If I file, married filing separately, they will eat my lunch on the taxes.

You are married... Single is not technically an option for you.... BTW, have you looked at the differences? Married separately and single use almost exactly the same rates... they are lockstep until $65K of taxable and at $100K of taxable income the tax diference between the two is less $500.

Remember when you sign the 1040... There is this little caveat: Under penalties of perjury, I declare that I have examined this return and accompanying schedules and statements, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, they are true, correct, and complete.

Ultimately, filing as single would be incorrect but the IRS doesn't hunt people down and jail them or assess penalties for paying too much in taxes. The error can simply be corrected by filing an amended return after your wife arrives. That's what we did with absolutely no problem. Further, I used the early refund to finance my second trip to China. Married filing separately requires a tax ID number for the wife too, doesn't it?

From the IRS:
You also must enter your spouse's full name in the space provided and must enter your spouse's SSN or ITIN in the space provided unless your spouse does not have and is not required to have an SSN or ITIN.

Not 100% clear but gives an indication that there might be some "wiggle" room on this topic.

Yes, it does. When I tried to do it, Turbo Tax gave me a warning. Perhaps the return would be accepted if mailed but I chose not to try efiing. Instead I just filed as single and amended later.

or you could file for an extension

Because of my salary, I got taxed extremely heavily when filing married but separate. I was forced to do that when going through a divorce and my tax bill was much larger than it would have been if filing single.

I am probably going to file single for now and then simply file an amended return once my wife gets here. I don't feel like writing a check for thousands of dollars only to let the IRS hang on to it for several months until my wife gets here.


I can't file an extension because I'm sure the embassy will want to see my 2007 return.

Sure you can... you can show them your 2007 tax return that you have accurately have prepared and intend on filing (on or about August 15, 2008) but have not.....

If you file as single, then by signing your return, you're swearing under penalty of perjury that you are not married. At all.

True, the IRS probably doesn't have any way of knowing your marital status, so they're unlikely to come after you. That may be especially true if by filing as "single" you paid more tax than you would ultimately be liable for after you amended to file a joint return.

But the USCIS will want to see your return. How do you propose to convince the USCIS that you're in a bona fide marriage when you're swearing up and down to the IRS that you're single?

These kind of catch-22 situations are yet one more thing that makes this whole immigration process so completely screwed.

I would be hesitant to simply file an extension so as to not give some embassy prick a potential reason to further delay my wife's visa.

I suppose I'll just have to suck it up and let the IRS hang on to thousands of dollars of my money while the state department and the embassy waste another few months of our lives. Of course, if I owed the IRS money, they would charge me interest and penalties, but you can bet they won't be paying me any.

I am not giving any advice or opinion here (I have very little knowledge about tax & immigration), just sharing what I did in the hope of hearing what others did or have to say on the subject....

I just filed "married jointly," along with an application for ITIN (W7 form). As for passport copy, it was notarized by a regular notary in India, and there is no "apostille." I figured that it would probably be a month or two before my file is processed. Even if they reject it, hopefully my wife would be here by then, and I would be able to get her passport notarized here. And if not, I will worry about it then. I thought about filing single and amending later, but that sounds so scary (giving incorrect marital information under penalty of perjury) I opted to do it this way. I also feel confident about dealing with IRS and convincing them it was a small mistake than having to deal with USCIS if they question the "single" filing status, or worse yet, having to deal with the aftermath of rejected application.

The embassy "prick" as you say, has no idea if the presented return has been filed or not so I don't understand your hesitation on the extension.

Depends on the circumstances but they do pay interest.

Your are exaggerating. People file amended returns all the time for all kinds of reasons. Filing as single means you pay more taxes. The IRS will gladly allow your filing as single to stand as long as you wish and just keep the extra money. Saying you're married when you're not could be a problem though.

Signing a return is not "swearing up and down". Further the Consular officers are aware of the unique difficulties of filing joint taxes before visa issuance. Lots of people do exactly as I did with no problem whatsoever. They just file as single and amend the return after their spouse arrives.

i never had my passport copy notarized by the EMBASSY here in manila... i just notarized it the ordinary way... and i also send my passport to my husband and have him notarize a copy of it from the US... (which is a bit hard to do since they dont notarize papers own by people not physically present.. so if you know anyone who can notarize it, a friend maybe... do it! 2 notarized copies is just making sure IRS will process it... but ive read from one couple here that an ordinary notary (from the foreign SO's country) will do!!)

hope that helps... yup we signed both the 1040 too.... and the declaration letter too... sent all of it together with the W7 form...

Good luck!!

p.s.

the thing is with filing jointly and wife is an alien... you wont get your stimulus refund.. not like when u file separately... you will get a stimulus refund...
(no valid SSN no stimulus refund!!!)