First year choice

[Award1345 0]

Hello,

 

I am trying to finish filing taxes and reading publication 519 but still can't figure out some stuff. Please advise.

 

Facts

-My husband is US citizen and moved back to the US from Japan in May, 2017.

 He had income in Japan from January to March. For my husband, he had more income in the US.

-I am a green card holder and moved to the US in June. I had income from January to June in Japan and in US from July to December. Total is about the same in US and Japan.

 

I am aware that we have 2 options. First one is that I claim to be considered as US resident for the whole year as my first year choice.

2nd choice is that we file 1040 and 1040 NR as dual status.

 

Questions

- What is the advantage and disadvantage for filling as US resident for the whole year?

 I know I can file married filling jointly and use standard deductions but I am not sure if it is that best in our case since we need to report our income worldwide.

 

- Can I use turbo tax or HR block to file taxes in this situation?

  I heard from someone that if you lived in a foreign county, there will be an error in the software... How did everyone file for the first year??

 

Thank you so much in advance!!!

 

 

Edited January 31, 2018 by Award1345

[TBoneTX 43,434]

Thread is moved from the "Moving to the US" forum to the Taxes & Finance forum, where similar issues are often discussed.

[Italian_in_NYC 259]

Just claim Japanese taxes paid (or accrued) as foreign tax credit. That should cover your US tax liability on foreign-source income.

As for the State return (if you have to file), file a part-year resident, so you could exclude your foreign-source income (no FTC at the State level).

[Award1345 0]

Thank you so much!

Do we need to file form 1040 and 2555 for my husband since he had a foreign income??

[Italian_in_NYC 259]

16 hours ago, Award1345 said:

Thank you so much!

Do we need to file form 1040 and 2555 for my husband since he had a foreign income??

No need for 2555, just file 1116 and take FTC.

Of course that is if he files a PY resident state return.