I think we took bad advice

[mrscrockett 0]

Good Morning,

Please be gentle but I think my husband and I made a mistake, or are close to doing so.

Last year, he had his tax status on his W2 as married, which caused them to take out less than 10% of his salary in taxes.

My w-2 is listed as single so that they take out the maximim amount of taxes, so as to reduce the incidence of tax liability the following year. Because they took out so little taxes from his money, my accountant advised that we filed separately. I just look the taxes and she filed me as Head of Household. We have an appt to get his done (taxes) on Thursday, and she said she would be processing him as single. Now this doesn't sound right to me, but she assures me it's just to make sure we dont owe any taxes to the IRS.

Now I have to remove my conditions in June, would this be an issue? Or should I just send in an explanation to USCIS when I send in my package.

We live at the same address, and the returns would reflect such. We also have co mingling of finances and other forms of evidence.

Please advise.

He is the USC and I am the PR.

Edited February 15, 2011 by mrscrockett

[Inky 1,110]

Hes married not single there for he should be filing married separately if you are not filing joint. Not single.

[YuAndDan 153]

Single or married filing separately?

As for tax withholding should simply reduce the withholding allowance amount to 1 or even 0 on the W-4 form filed with employer. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf This is not considered to look like claiming to be single, it just increases the amount of tax withheld.

Note filing a Joint return in most cases will get you the maximum return.

You can always file an amended return to correct this, I wold talk with a CPA, not a tax preparer about this. A CPA understands much more about tax law, a preparer like you find at H&R Block only knows enough to fill out forms properly and tend to not know all the ins and outs of the tax code.

[mrscrockett 0]

She advised me for maximum return we should file separately, since he flubbed on his W-4. *sigh*

My heart is heavy. I will probably need to amend the return. Thanks *sigh*

Single or married filing separately?

As for tax withholding should simply reduce the withholding allowance amount to 1 or even 0 on the W-4 form filed with employer. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf This is not considered to look like claiming to be single, it just increases the amount of tax withheld.

Note filing a Joint return in most cases will get you the maximum return.

You can always file an amended return to correct this, I wold talk with a CPA, not a tax preparer about this. A CPA understands much more about tax law, a preparer like you find at H&R Block only knows enough to fill out forms properly and tend to not know all the ins and outs of the tax code.

Single . :/

[Nich-Nick 3,353]

He is not single and shouldn't file as that. If he doesn't want to file joint, then it's Married Filing Seperately.

Head of Household filing is generally for people like single moms who are not married but support children or are widows with children. You are married and probably don't meet the requirements as Head of Household.

Filing Jointly almost always results in lower taxes than Married Filing Seperately. I don't think your explanation sounds like something that would help your ROC. HE didn't pay in enough so I'm going to to protect MY money and let him suck it up on HIS taxes. A married couple should be putting it all in one pot, so to speak, and not worrying about HIS money and MY money.

Edited February 15, 2011 by Nich-Nick

[mrscrockett 0]

He is not single and shouldn't file as that. If he doesn't want to file joint, then it's Married Filing Seperately.

Head of Household filing is generally for people like single moms who are not married but support children or are widows with children. You are married and probably don't meet the requirements as Head of Household.

Filing Jointly almost always results in lower taxes than Married Filing Seperately. I don't think your explanation sounds like something that would help your ROC. HE didn't pay in enough so I'm going to to protect MY money and let him suck it up on HIS taxes. A married couple should be putting it all in one pot, so to speak, and not worrying about HIS money and MY money.

Thank you.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

The best Tax Strategy is to give the Government as close to the actual amount you should as possible which means having a smaller tax refund.

Why is this a good strategy? Well a larger return means that you've given the Government an interest free loan of your money!

[sarah&rob 1]

I had something similar happen. I am the USC and I have a full-time better paying job than my husband. He works part time at a grocery store and when he was first hired, his boss put "Married" on his W4 form so this year he made around $12k and they only took out $20 for federal withholding.

When I changed my W4 at work, they have a box to check "Married, but withhold at higher single rate". I had that box checked so they tax me at the single rate even though I am married.

When we had our taxes done, we ended up owing money because they didn't take enough from my husband (thankfully it was only like $45 that we owed to federal). Our tax people then advised us and I had him bring a new W4 to work that put the same - "Married, but withhold at higher single rate". So far that seems to be working because in his last paycheck they withheld $10 instead of $0 or $.50 or whatever that they had done previously.

Your husband should definitely NOT file his taxes as "SINGLE" because he is married. You can file Married Filing Separately or Married Filing Jointly. We were advise at our tax session that if you file Married/Separate that you will not get as much of a tax break as if you filed Married/Joint. I also tested this out on the free Turbo Tax online and when I did it Married/Separate I owed over $500 just by myself because I couldn't include my Student Loan interest and did not get the tax break. I took this year as a learning experience and even though I was angry because we wanted to use our tax refund to go back to the UK to visit my husband's family, at least we only owed $45 and not more. Now I know more about the whole process and won't make mistakes in the future.

[mrscrockett 0]

Thank you guys for the responses. I have an appt for Thursday to amend my taxes, I am little pissed at him but you live and you learn.

I had something similar happen. I am the USC and I have a full-time better paying job than my husband. He works part time at a grocery store and when he was first hired, his boss put "Married" on his W4 form so this year he made around $12k and they only took out $20 for federal withholding.

When I changed my W4 at work, they have a box to check "Married, but withhold at higher single rate". I had that box checked so they tax me at the single rate even though I am married.

When we had our taxes done, we ended up owing money because they didn't take enough from my husband (thankfully it was only like $45 that we owed to federal). Our tax people then advised us and I had him bring a new W4 to work that put the same - "Married, but withhold at higher single rate". So far that seems to be working because in his last paycheck they withheld $10 instead of $0 or $.50 or whatever that they had done previously.

Your husband should definitely NOT file his taxes as "SINGLE" because he is married. You can file Married Filing Separately or Married Filing Jointly. We were advise at our tax session that if you file Married/Separate that you will not get as much of a tax break as if you filed Married/Joint. I also tested this out on the free Turbo Tax online and when I did it Married/Separate I owed over $500 just by myself because I couldn't include my Student Loan interest and did not get the tax break. I took this year as a learning experience and even though I was angry because we wanted to use our tax refund to go back to the UK to visit my husband's family, at least we only owed $45 and not more. Now I know more about the whole process and won't make mistakes in the future.

[sarah&rob 1]

Thank you guys for the responses. I have an appt for Thursday to amend my taxes, I am little pissed at him but you live and you learn.

Good luck with everything...tax time is stressful

[Dagobert 0]

You can always file an amended return to correct this, I wold talk with a CPA, not a tax preparer about this. A CPA understands much more about tax law, a preparer like you find at H&R Block only knows enough to fill out forms properly and tend to not know all the ins and outs of the tax code.

Could not agree more. If your tax return has anything more complicated than a single W-2, get professional tax assistance from a CPA, Enrolled Agent or a tax practitioner...stay away from the "Fast Food" preparers from H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt. If you are married then according to the Internal Revenue Code you have two options(except in very specific circumstances): Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately

You were given erroneous advice from your tax preparer and you as the taxpayer are liable for the erroneous tax return not the preparer. Basically your preparer prepared a fraudulent return for you. Good luck with the amendment process.

Glad the IRS is going to require testing and continuing professional education for preparers now.

[Cino 5]

First of, you fire the tax preparer & don't attend to meet with her on Thursday. She doesn't know anything. When you do "Married Filing Jointly Return", you get the max. benefit. Secondly, you can not be Head of Household, when you are married !.... & at the same time he can not be SINGLE when he is married.

Not only you will have problems with USCIS but also IRS too. Why ? Because you can not change your marital status annually just because you feel like it. I can assure you that it is going to raise BIG RED FLAG for USCIS when you apply for I-751 (ROC). Look at IRS definition of "Head of Household" !....

Head of Household Generally, you may claim head of household filing status on your tax return only if you are unmarried and pay more than 50% of the costs of keeping up a home for yourself and your dependent(s) or other qualifying individuals.

Good Luck !....

[Alex B 9]

Don't be upset at him. I think everything I've ever learned about taxes was "the hard way", including a threatening letter I received once from the IRS to garnish my wages (long story from when I first came to the US and my UK company was meant to be paying my taxes but I quit for my H1B before they paid up)

If you're married you have 2 choices and only 2:

1) married filing jointly - this is almost certain to give the best possible outcome. To get close the person making the most should file the W-4 with approximately the right items. The person making less should do the worksheet, which nearly always comes out to specifying 0 deductions regardless of filing status. You may even want to ensure that more is taken out. As as example, let's say I earn $100K. I'll be taxed at 28% (IIRC) and my spouse say earns 20K. To get it to come out correctly we need to have her earnings taxed at 28%, not the 11-15% (I don't remember which) that would come from just treating her earnings. By doing the worksheet you get to this number.

2) married filing separately - this is almost only ever useful if you both make approximately the same amount. The tax rate is higher but so can be the deductions.

I'd figure out your return both ways and use whatever comes out less. I thought there was some rule about switching between the two but I can't find anything right now.

Enjoy tax season!

Alex.

[katiemanny 64]

I have to agree with Dagobert. Stay away from H&R Block, these guys almost screw us on our taxes for 2010, the lady told me my allowances were too high for Married 2, I should put Married 1 because married already add me and my wife, we were so confused, plus she found our refund for Federal only 270 dollars. We went to a CPA instead and got almost 1000 back with free direct deposit and efile.

Edited February 16, 2011 by katiemanny

[Inky 1,110]

I have to agree with Dagobert. Stay away from H&R Block, these guys almost screw us on our taxes for 2010, the lady told me my allowances were too high for Married 2, I should put Married 1 because married already add me and my wife, we were so confused, plus she found our refund for Federal only 270 dollars. We went to a CPA instead and got almost 1000 back with free direct deposit and efile.

How did you find your CPA? We did HR last year and are not sure we want to use them again to file our returns.