Hi,

Can I file the tax return as Married as I got married in October 2005 and my wife will not have TIN or SSN as she is still out of country as the visa is in process ?

Any help will be appreciated?

Thanks..

You have to file as married, either jointly or separately. You have to obtain an ITIN for your wife. There is no way around it, even if you file as married filing separately.

But you also have a choice to elect to treat your spouse as a resident for tax purposes for the entire year and file jointly. You would then have to declare her income. However, if it's less than $80,000, you can then exclude it by using form 2555 or 2555EZ.

In this case, you would get to use the more favorable married filing joint tax rates.

Here is a link to a thread in archives with lots of info regarding your question

http://www.visajourney.com/forums2/index.php?showtopic=73046


Its also a good idea not to post the same question in different forums so as we are not repeating ourselves

So, do you HAVE to file married jointly or separately? I didn't because I was ignorant. But when I went back to do an amended return (Form 1040X) my calculations came up with $0 refund and I don't owe any money either. Do I still need to amend my return for 2004? (I got married 9/2004).
Thanks!