Arrived December 2018 (CR1), filling taxes

[IF-Mclean 83]

2 hours ago, junkmart said:

I'm in a similar situation. I'm a USC married to Mexican who has been in the US since August 2018. We married in December. He is considered a US Resident Alien for tax purposes due to the substantial presence test (more that 183 days present in US during 2018). Even if he didn't pass the substantial presence test, we would have chosen to treat him as a Resident Alien.

 

Before coming to the US, he had income and paid taxes in Mexico. We are filing MFJ. Because of filing MFJ, we must include his income from Mexico with my income on line 1 of 1040. This is called "worldwide income." In order to prevent double taxation on his income in Mexico, we are filing form 1116 Foreign Tax Credit. It's a little complicated, but read the instructions thoroughly and you'll figure it out. Form 1116 helps you figure out how much of a credit you can take on your foreign taxes. You are not required to provide any proof of what your foreign income was, or how much foreign taxes you paid, but you should keep those records in the event you are audited.

 

If you don't have any foreign income for 2018, then your situation may be even easier.

 

Here are the forms I will file for 2019.

2018 1040

2018 1040 S 3 (Schedule where you input the credit figured on form 1116)

2018 1116 Foreign Tax Credit

 

Best of luck!

Thanks a lot dear for this precious information. 

We were filling our tax when you sent the message. We used turbo and I was able to have a whole exclusion. My spouse is about to get more than 4 times what he uses to as tax returns. Which is great.