HOW SHOULD I FILE MY 2010 INCOME TAX

[Sem_I_am 0]

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You filed as married, filing jointly. In that case you will need to include Form W7 with your tax return. You will need your wife's passport copies (usually certified copies.) And you must file your taxes via paper. IRS will assign and ITIN for your wife and proceed as normal.

Could you please explain a bit more about how this works? From what you wrote it seems supersimple, just sending tax return to different address and attaching form W7. Now, I'm confused with IRS website where it says that it "takes about 6-8 weeks to get ITIN number" and I don't understand why and what for do I need this number when my taxes are already sent out with W7 form??

[mr2fyre 3]

nonresident spouse treated as a resident: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=96370,00.html

I don't know why anyone would want to wait to amend the return in the future. If you are going to do married filing joint in the amendment you should do it now so you get your money back faster.

If you aren't going to get more money back filing married filing joint then you should do married filing separately.

I would not file single if I am married, as that is the whole purpose of doing married filing separately.

By the way i am not an expert. it is just what i have read.

Edited January 29, 2011 by mr2fyre

[J e n n y 26]

nonresident spouse treated as a resident: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=96370,00.html

I don't know why anyone would want to wait to amend the return in the future. If you are going to do married filing joint in the amendment you should do it now so you get your money back faster.

If you aren't going to get more money back filing married filing joint then you should do married filing separately.

I would not file single if I am married, as that is the whole purpose of doing married filing separately.

By the way i am not an expert. it is just what i have read.

Anyone can file however they want.

[Scott and Mhay 57]

nonresident spouse treated as a resident: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=96370,00.html

I don't know why anyone would want to wait to amend the return in the future. If you are going to do married filing joint in the amendment you should do it now so you get your money back faster.

If you aren't going to get more money back filing married filing joint then you should do married filing separately.

I would not file single if I am married, as that is the whole purpose of doing married filing separately.

By the way i am not an expert. it is just what i have read.

If you were to file married separately, you might as well file married joint since you need an ITIN for either of them and in most cases married joint filing gives a bigger refund. Because technically if you were filing married separately wouldnt your non-resident spouse still have to file a return in the US on their foreign income (if they had any)?

[mare333 0]

guys if you are going to use form W7 YOU MUST HAVE spouse original passport with you!! And thats almost immposible to have.

IRS office will take coipies of your spouse passport, they will not accept copies. I already talked to them last year about that.

Now, after so many treads about taxes, is there any final answer what is the best way to do?

[mare333 0]

guys if you are going to use form W7 YOU MUST HAVE spouse original passport with you!! And thats almost immposible to have.

IRS office will take coipies of your spouse passport, they will not accept copies. I already talked to them last year about that.

Now, after so many treads about taxes, is there any final answer what is the best way to do?

and also i dont understand this - if i go and PAY tax agency (H&R BLOCK) for my tax return today (married filing jointly) then what?

Do i take it with me to IRS office and ask them for W7? Or H$R can file W7 for me? But then what? I have to go to IRS office anyway with my wifes passport which i dont have??? SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Confusing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[calibob 73]

Here is a different route that avoids most of the hassles. My CPA recommended filing an extension (since we're getting money back no penalty/interest) till my wife gets here and receives her SSN. Otherwise we'd have to get an ITIN by filing taxes in the Austin office with the W-7 attached, wait about 6 weeks and hope they don't make any mistakes or get delayed. There are acceptance agents abroad that will help (for a fee sometimes) file the W-7 with tax forms. In my opinion, just a headache...........

That and $2 will get you a cup of coffee....

Bob

[mare333 0]

Here is a different route that avoids most of the hassles. My CPA recommended filing an extension (since we're getting money back no penalty/interest) till my wife gets here and receives her SSN. Otherwise we'd have to get an ITIN by filing taxes in the Austin office with the W-7 attached, wait about 6 weeks and hope they don't make any mistakes or get delayed. There are acceptance agents abroad that will help (for a fee sometimes) file the W-7 with tax forms. In my opinion, just a headache...........

That and $2 will get you a cup of coffee....

Bob

but there is one problem. NVC or ambassy wants my tax returns from last 3 years. And how im going to do that if i dont have it for 2010 ? Sure, i can explain i requested for extension but that will be additional headache maybe . Can it delay immigration process ? I dont want to do anything that will further complicate my immigration process.

[calibob 73]

The final decision is ultimately yours. I'm picking the "poison" that suits my circumstance best. I'm confident that they'll understand the why's and what for's about the extension. (after all, they work for the US Government too!! ) It shouldn't delay the process if you have 3 solid years of transcripts to show and other solid evidence of marriage along with ongoing communications to show a valid marriage. My CPA just said the Austin office of IRS is almost impossible to communicate with if needed and may take longer than necessary . One bonus for us is we are October petitioners so our extension will be short or non-existent IF the CSC gets off the slow pace.

Bob

[DFW-LHE 0]

As far as what I can see on the W-4 form, the actual form that determines how much tax is taken out of your paycheck, it states that if you are married and your spouse is a non-resident then you should file as a single.

So when the government told me to file as single if my spouse is a non-resident, I did as I was told.

I was worried too that when the time came for me to send in my AOS that I would have problems. But I will be sending the W-4 form with the section highlighted stating that you should file as a single if your spouse is a non-resident.

Just my two cents or two paisas.

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

(page 1, question 3)

[pushbrk 12,093]

Not filing married would be considered tax fraud and could come with a prison sentence. Also how are you going to use taxes from a year you are married to show that you can be a sponsor and have it say single when the whole point of the interview is to show you have a genuine marriage? It seems counterintuitive and screams fraud.

Not true. Trust me on this. It is PERFECTLY OK to file as single and then later amend the return when the spouse has an SSN. In fact, that's what I did and many others have done. I know an IRS appeals officer who will be doing exactly that too because the only way to file as married would be for him to have his wife mail him her passport from abroad, so he could get it authenticated "downstairs". "Downstairs" doesn't care if he works "upstairs". Mailing passports back and forth across oceans is risky business.

Filing as married when single would be fraud but doing things to increase your taxes is not fraud.

[Sem_I_am 0]

Where does it say that you need original passport? That's nonsense. Certified copies accompanied by apostille stamp are fine.

[mare333 0]

Where does it say that you need original passport? That's nonsense. Certified copies accompanied by apostille stamp are fine.

US Certified copies ! And how u gonna do that without passport in the hand? Remember its IRS asking for it, not immigration, IRS will not accept certefied copies made in foreign country.

[Sem_I_am 0]

US Certified copies ! And how u gonna do that without passport in the hand? Remember its IRS asking for it, not immigration, IRS will not accept certefied copies made in foreign country.

That is not true. I'm holding "Instructions for Form W-7" issued in January of 2010 in my hands, and on Page 2 it says "You can submit copies of original documents if you do any of the following.... Have copies notarized by a foreign notary. However, foreign notaries are only acceptable as outlined by the Hague Convention." This means it needs to be stamped with "apostille" mark.

[Scott and Mhay 57]

Here is a different route that avoids most of the hassles. My CPA recommended filing an extension (since we're getting money back no penalty/interest) till my wife gets here and receives her SSN. Otherwise we'd have to get an ITIN by filing taxes in the Austin office with the W-7 attached, wait about 6 weeks and hope they don't make any mistakes or get delayed. There are acceptance agents abroad that will help (for a fee sometimes) file the W-7 with tax forms. In my opinion, just a headache...........

That and $2 will get you a cup of coffee....

Bob

I was going to file an extension, but if you say you are married when filing for the extension, they ask for your spouse's SSN or ITIN. I was going to do the extension stuff on turbotax, print it out and send it...but I didnt have anything to go with.

It is clear that there is no one answer for taxes. For me it was better to file HOH (because I qualified) and ammend it later. Some others want to do it the other way...file joint and wait. No problems with that either. Either way is right and gets the same outcome.

That is not true. I'm holding "Instructions for Form W-7" issued in January of 2010 in my hands, and on Page 2 it says "You can submit copies of original documents if you do any of the following.... Have copies notarized by a foreign notary. However, foreign notaries are only acceptable as outlined by the Hague Convention." This means it needs to be stamped with "apostille" mark.

Yes and the country that it is coming from has to be part of the Hague Convention....not all countries are. I know for a fact the philippines is not part of the Hague Convention.