basic tax questions

[maya62 7]

I hope I hope I hope someone will have the patience and knowledge to help...

I've read Gimy's guidelines and a good deal of the US Tax Guide For Aliens, Publication 501, and the 1040 Instructions and I still have questions. Here is our situation:

My husband and stepson (now 10) entered the US last October and have been here ever since. I thought back in the spring that we should wait to file until he had been here 180+ days in 2006, so I filed an extension. I think now that may have been a faulty conclusion, but nevertheless, I am trying to figure this out now as it has now been over 180 days.

I think we should file "married filing jointly" and choose to treat my husband as a resident alien for the 2005 tax year. His world wide income for 2005 was minimal by US standards. So question 1 is:

1. How do we report his non-US income? He received no paycheck or other documentation for this income (he was a trekking guide and was paid in cash).

My husband's son lived with him from April 2005 to October 2005 in their country. He came with us to the US in October 2005 and has lived with us ever since. He can not be claimed by any other person. So here's question 2:

2. Can our son be claimed as a dependent, and if so, can we file the ITIN application with our 1040, or do we have to file that first, get the ITIN, and then subsequently use that to file the 1040?

Any help would be SOOO appreciated!

Thanks!!

Maya

[anitacastillo 0]

You were married by 12/31/05, so you can file married filing jointly. And you can declare your stepson as a dependent.

As far as declaring your husband's income, I might suggest you do a Schedule C (small business) - EZ version and treat his guiding as a sole proprietor business. However, if you dont' declare, I doubt the IRS will know - note: I am not advising anyone to break the law.

I am not familiar with getting ITN #s - do you have a SS # for either one yet? (That might be a good reason for an extension.) Hopefully someone more familiar with ITNs will hopefully pipe up.

[maya62 7]

You were married by 12/31/05, so you can file married filing jointly. And you can declare your stepson as a dependent.

As far as declaring your husband's income, I might suggest you do a Schedule C (small business) - EZ version and treat his guiding as a sole proprietor business. However, if you dont' declare, I doubt the IRS will know - note: I am not advising anyone to break the law.

I am not familiar with getting ITN #s - do you have a SS # for either one yet? (That might be a good reason for an extension.) Hopefully someone more familiar with ITNs will hopefully pipe up.

Thanks for your response, Anita. I will look for a Schedule C EZ. I am almost certain his employer never reported anything to their government (which, incidentally, has changed COMPLETELY twice in the almost 2 years since I met my husband, and couldn't find its own ####### with both hands).

My husband has a SSN and has been working since 2 weeks after his arrival, with a hiatus when the temporary EAD ran out and we didn't have the 1 year EAD yet. But even with that income, if we file jointly and claim our son, we are going to get a sweet little check! YAY!

I just hope we don't get slammed at their AOS interviews at the end of this month because I doubt we'll have the 2005 return back that quickly. We'll have an updated employer letter and recent paycheck stubs, so hopefully we'll be OK.

Thanks again Anita!

Maya