If everything goes well, my fiance and I plan to marry beginning of December. I was reading info on filing taxes while married to a non-resident. I was a bit confused! He won't have any income at the time so is it better to file married-joint or married separately. I did not understand the best way to file taxes with a non-resident spouse.

My CPA has advised that I will be filing Married seperate this year. Best to check with a tax professional on that one.

I'm no expert, so take this with a grain of salt, but it's probably best you each file separately, in your respective countries, for 2006. There's nothing to gain by filing jointly, and even if there were, the cross-border tax accountants who handle this are very expensive.

He will be on the hook for Canadian taxes until he moves. So if he plans to marry and move in December, he needs to do an exit return so Revenue Canada doesn't consider him taxable after he leaves. Don't mingle your taxes until you're sure he's no longer taxable in Canada.

Darkchild80,

You should check the IRS rules or with a tax professional.

I thought it was a requirement to have been married for 6 months or more, of the given tax year to qualify for joint tax returns. Not really sure though.

If you are a citizen or a permanent resident of United States, and married to a foreign national living outside the US, you can get an ITIN number for your spouse and file taxes jointly. In fact, you can apply for an ITIN number at the time of filing your taxes. You need to fill out the following W-7 and file it along with your return.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw7.pdf

You will be applying ITIN based on the following criteria: (from the instructions)

e. Spouse of U.S. citizen/resident alien. This category includes:

● A nonresident alien electing to file a U.S. tax return jointly with a spouse who is a U.S. citizen or resident.


If he does not have any income and if you file jointly, there will be tax advantages -- your standard deductions are now higher than that of a "single" tax payer.

I would file jointly -- a way to establish husband/wife relationship that USCIS so desperately wants to see.

I concur

aussiewench,

Is this practice "acceptable" to IRS rules? I would love to hear "yes" to that, as my Wife will have a SSN in two weeks, yet will have only 80 days in the US in this tax year.

Anyone with further thoughts or source info?

You can file a joint return even if you get married on Dec. 31.

I'm not up on all the tax issues, but many file married filing seperately when the spouse is still not in the US. And as AUSC pointed out, it does make great evidence of a bona fide marriage when it comes to the interview. That is the extent of my knowledge on this. If you send Gimmygirl a PM she may be able to answer you as she is pretty cluey with tax issues. She did have a pinned thread on this in the old site but unfortunately now it is not accessible.

*note to self to see what the Capt'n can do about that*

Darkchild,

If you are married before the end of the year it will probably be to your benefit to file married joint. Your husband will have to report any income he earned in his home country during the year, but only the amount in excess of US$80,000 (last year's figure, this year may be higher) will be taxable. Thus, only your income will be taxed and it will be taxed at a lower rate.

Yodrak



Hey all,

When we're talking taxes fvck relationship and file in the way that will cost you the least money. USCIS will understand, there's no immigration requirement that says you have to increase your tax payment for your spouse to obtain an immigration benefit.

In many cases, however, the least tax obligation will result from filing Married-Joint. I filed Married-Joint while Rodjanaa was still in Thailand waiting for my petition to be approved and it saved me several thousand dollars.

Yodrak

Yodrak,

What would this site be without your input? Second class.

Good stuff as usual.

But, he *will* be a resident spouse.

The IRS has a different definition of 'resident' than does the CIS. The irs.gov website is also actually very useful, unlike er, well.

Yodrak and I totally agree on this: file the way that makes the most financial sense! Just bear in mind that if you are married as of 12/31/XX you MUST file married for that year. Now, Jointly or Separately, that is up to you all.
That goes for you with spouses outside the US; they can even be tax resident for the year without setting foot in the US.

Your Canadian spouse will need to file a tax return in Canada. He can pick up a really useful guide on how to file as an emigrant in the Canada Revenue site of the Government of Canada. Basically, he will record the date he physically left Canada and if he doesn't have any other income for the rest of the year outside of Canada, he can file his Canadian taxes and claim maximum federal and provincial benefits. The guide will advise him exactly how to do it so as to notify CRA that he has emigrated from Canada. JHe should make sure to advise CRA of his new address asap so that they can send him the tax forms in the mail to his new US address.

You can file married, jointly and then claim both incomes as income and then claim a foreign tax credit for the taxes paid in Canada on his Canadian income so you are not double taxed. He will need to convert his Canadian income and tax paid into US dollars and he will need to prepare his Canadian return in sufficient time so that you can file by the April 15 deadline - the Canadian tax deadline is April 30. You may also want to prepare both forms well in advance to see which filing process is going to be most advantageous to you: married filing jointly, or married filing separately.

We did this and found it it was to our benefit to file married, jointly. I received a nice tax rebate from Canada, and we were able to claim all except for about $13 of my Canadian tax as a foreign tax credit. The married exemptions for spouse, etc. meant my husband had a larger deduction so he too saved and got a good rebate.

It would be well worth your while to purchase one of the big tax guides that are for sale in most bookstores for around $20. They usually have chapters on foreign residents paying taxes. Just be advised, you may be required to file a paper return and not efile since the foreign tax credit cannot be claimed by efile ( unless it has changed in the last 2 years).

Be prepared to do a lot of reading but you can probably do this by yourself. My husband and I did although it was certainly not an enjoyable experience for either of us due to the distinct differences in the very basic fundamentals of how each country taxes. We had a lot of 'frustrated' discussions each of us trying to see why the other found something difficult to understand:-). He was dubious about the married filing jointly working to our advantage but once we did the math, we found out it did even with my Canadian income included.

Good luck.

If you need a good cross-border tax preparer, I can recommend David Levine at http://www.keatsconnelly.com. He helped me file an amended return this year. It was originally submitted by http://www.serbinski.com, and could have cost me an extra $65,000 in tax. (Where's the emoticon for fainting?)

This stuff isn't easy and even the experts don't always agree, as in my case. Be ready to pay $600 per return, U.S. and Canadian.

My only question about filing jointly is this: if your husband had no income, will he look like your dependent even though you don't claim him as one? Could this have an impact on getting his permanent visa later?

Jersey Girl,

65K in additional tax?

There should be no ramifications or impact on permanent residency if you file joint tax returns even if only one taxpayer has income.

The information previously provided in this thread (particularly by Aussie and Yodrak) has been accurate. While I am not an expert on the complexities of international taxation, I am a CPA.

Taken from IRS publication 17 for tax professionals

What category of tax return you can file is dependent on you status at 12/31/05, if you are married on 12/31/06 then you and your spouse can file Married Filling Jointly or Married Filling Separately. There are advantages to filling MFJ even if your spouse has no income. based on the figuars for 2005 if you file MFJ your joint standard deduction is $10,000.00 + $6,400 in personal exemptions. If you file MFS its it $3,200... these are the amounts you are allowed to earn before tax is payable... There are also Foreign tax credits available for taxes paid in another country.... one thing to remember is that if you file MFJ it is both yours and your spouse worldwide income that has to be reported...

I can not give anymore detailed information here... there are many many Tax Professionals who can give you advice specific to your situation....


Kezzie

The $ amounts quoted above are from the Tax year 2005 NOT 2006 and are intended for example only.....

I do not wish to hijack the thread, but it's important to know how Revenue Canada views former residents (myself) and may consider them taxable even later.

After I left Canada, I had to collapse my RRSP because neither E*Trade nor anyone else would deal with someone with a U.S. address. (I can hear the protests, but I'm a dual, not a snowbird, and was advised to cash out.) As a non-resident, the tax is 25%. Good deal, when you consider a resident would pay 46%.

I thought I was a non-resident, having sold my house and moved back to the States, but Serbinski disagreed. Since I had a Canadian husband living in Toronto waiting for his K-3, it was enough of a "tie" to make my RRSP taxable at the highest rate, even though I hadn't set foot in Canada in 2006.

I'd been saving for retirement for 25 years. The difference between paying 25% and 46% is a sickening $65,000. So I got a second opinion. The cross border tax experts at Keats Connelly maintain that I left Canada as a single person, took up residence in Jersey, and subsequently married a Canadian who returned to Toronto. But that doesn't change my non-resident status. It remains to be seen if Rev Can agrees.

Lesson learned: it's crucial to file an exit return and cut all financial ties (sell house, cancel credit cards, return gov health card, etc.). Even so, Rev Can might consider you taxable on your worldwide income even if you've moved to the States. And if you're filing jointly, it can be an even bigger, costlier mess.

I filed 2005 married joint. I came out better with my taxes. He had tofile for a tax id # & complete the W-7 form and I submit with taxes.

I have a Thai Wife (We are waiting for our interview in Bangkok) and I filed jointly for 2005. I had to attach a form (Forgot which number) to my tax return, and it was rejected, due to the fact that I needed a Notarized copy of my wifes passport.
After getting the U.S. Embassy to do this, I re summited the documents, and I received my tax refund in September.
My Thai wife now has a I.D. (It specifically states that this is not a social security number) and only to be used for tax purposes.

P.S. I saved about $800 in taxes by doing this.

Form W-9 Application for Taxpayer Identification Number.

I did the same and saved over $2,000 for 2004.

Yodrak

Is it a W-9 or W-7 ?

tom&tata,

W-7. (W-9 has a similar name but is different.)

Thanks for questioning me on that.

Yodrak

I, as the Canadian when I was still living in Canada, filed my taxes as married... but because my hubby didn't have a Social Insurance number all they told me to do was put NONRES in the space provided for the SIN number... I didn't need to include his income or anything....

No Comment. I didn't see all that was written. HA HA

I'm still in Canada, haven't moved yet. But my US fiance files Head of Household ever year. Seems to me it would be best for her to keep filing HoH and me file married filing separate once I get down there.

Texanadian,

Once you are married and living together she can no longer file as Head of Household.

Yodrak

found this. for non resident spouse

U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad - Head of Household

If you are a U.S. citizen married to a nonresident alien you may qualify to use the head of household tax rates. Although your nonresident alien spouse cannot qualify you as a head of household, you can qualify if (a) or ( applies:

You paid more than half the cost of keeping up a home that was the principal home for the whole year for your mother or father for whom you can claim an exemption (your parent does not have to have lived with you), or
You paid more than half the cost of keeping up the home in which you lived and in which one of the following also lived for more than half the year:
Your unmarried child, grandchild, stepchild, foster child, or adopted child. A foster child will qualify you for this status only if you can claim an exemption for the child
Your married child, grandchild, stepchild, or adopted child for whom you can claim an exemption, or for whom you could claim an exemption except that you signed a statement allowing the noncustodial parent to claim the exemption, or the noncustodial parent provides at least $600 support and claims the exemption under a pre-1985 agreement
Any relative listed below for whom you can claim an exemption:
Parent Father-in-law
Grandparent Brother-in-law
Brother Sister-in-law
Half-brother Half-sister
Sister Son-in-law
Stepbrother Daughter-in-law
Stepsister Mother-in-law
Stepmother Stepfather


If related by blood:


Uncle Aunt
Nephew Niece


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, then you are treated as unmarried for head of household purposes. You must have another qualifying relative and meet the other tests to be eligible to file as head of household.

You can use the head of household column in the Tax Table or the head of household Tax Rate Schedule. It may be advantageous to choose to treat your nonresident alien spouse as a U.S. resident and file a joint income tax return. Once you make the choice, however, you must report the worldwide income of both yourself and your spouse.