Self-employed joint sponsor - current income confusion and joint tax returns

[kalikala 32]

My USC husband is my sponsor and we will have a joint sponsor who is self-employed. I will be attaching complete Tax Returns for 2015, 2016 and 2017.

 

Regarding income:

As of right now (January 2019) she does not know exactly how much her current individual annual income is because she is a Realtor and her income is solely based on sales commissions.

 

Her 2018 tax returns are in progress so she doesn't have her total income for 2018 tax year yet. We are wanting to submit all the required documents to submit to NVC through the CEAC website this week.

 

What does she put on Part 6, Question 7 - my current individual annual income is: $____

 

Does she:

1) Put the total income that was stated on her 2017 tax return? Is it line 22 of 1040?

2) Put what she thinks she will make this year?

3) Put the adjusted gross income for the 2018 tax year? She can get this from her CPA but it will take some time.

 

These are the several responses I've seen from previous posts when doing my research on this so I'm just unsure exactly what should be filled in here for her situation.

 

Regarding the submission of tax returns:

 

I am submitting my joint sponsors complete tax returns for the past 3 years, this includes all schedules and 1099's.

 

• Because she is married, she files taxes jointly with her spouse.
• Her spouse is filling out I-864a as a household member - even though his income will not be contributed (his income is actually zero). I've seen a lot of posts say that some CO's request for this.

 

Questions:

1) How will they determine what my joint sponsors individual income is from the tax returns given it was filed jointly?

2) What does the spouse submit for his tax returns? If he has zero income does he just state that he didn't file any taxes even though they were filed jointly with his spouse?

3) I will upload all 3 years of complete tax returns to the CEAC website - they are about 40 pages each. Do I need to print out all these pages for the interview? I am not very familiar with the US tax forms (very different to NZ) so I appreciate advice on this.

 

 

Thank you in advance for your advice.

 

 

[kalikala 32]

46 minutes ago, kalikala said:

What does she put on Part 6, Question 7 - my current individual annual income is: $____

 

Does she:

1) Put the total income that was stated on her 2017 tax return? Is it line 22 of 1040?

2) Put what she thinks she will make this year?

3) Put the adjusted gross income for the 2018 tax year? She can get this from her CPA but it will take some time.

4) OR could she put what she earned in commissions in 2018 (pre-tax and pre-deductions) - which will be a lot higher than what her total income will be once the return has been filed. But by showing the past 3 years returns it clearly shows after deductions steady total income that is still well above poverty guidelines.

 

In addition to this, her supporting document (a signed and dated statement about the nature of the business and the sponsors involvement) she has written that she earned $xxx (the figure for what we could put as current individual annual income) in commissions in 2018 and noted that this is pre-tax and pre-deductions.

 

Would that be a suitable solution as to what she puts as her current individual annual income?

[kalikala 32]

If anyone is in the same situation and might be interested, I did more research on this so I'm going to answer some of my questions.

 

 

Regarding income:

 

22 hours ago, kalikala said:

What does she put on Part 6, Question 7 - my current individual annual income is: $____

 

Does she:

1) Put the total income that was stated on her 2017 tax return? Is it line 22 of 1040?

2) Put what she thinks she will make this year?

3) Put the adjusted gross income for the 2018 tax year? She can get this from her CPA but it will take some time.

Answer: 1 - put total income that was stated on her 2017 tax return, line 22 of 1040.

 

 

 

Regarding the submission of tax returns:

 

 

22 hours ago, kalikala said:

1) How will they determine what my joint sponsors individual income is from the tax returns given it was filed jointly?

2) What does the spouse submit for his tax returns? If he has zero income does he just state that he didn't file any taxes even though they were filed jointly with his spouse?

3) I will upload all 3 years of complete tax returns to the CEAC website - they are about 40 pages each. Do I need to print out all these pages for the interview? I am not very familiar with the US tax forms (very different to NZ) so I appreciate advice on this.

 

1) Still don't know

2) He will put $0 current income and in the past 3 years tax section he filed taxes (jointly with wife) and will put the same total income for past 3 years as his wife has put on her I-864. 

3) Still don't know, I could guess it's just the 1040 and schedules and 1099s?

 

 

[catmonkey 27]

On 1/13/2019 at 10:18 PM, kalikala said:

If anyone is in the same situation and might be interested, I did more research on this so I'm going to answer some of my questions.

 

 

Regarding income:

 

Answer: 1 - put total income that was stated on her 2017 tax return, line 22 of 1040.

 

 

 

 

 

Hello, for your last post there where you were "answering your own questions", you are saying that the correct thing to do in that situation is put total income that was stated on her 2017 tax return, line 22 of 1040."

 

Where did you get that info, as I am in the same situation.   I have no idea if they are referring to 2017, 2018, or 2019.

[kalikala 32]

4 minutes ago, catmonkey said:

Hello, for your last post there where you were "answering your own questions", you are saying that the correct thing to do in that situation is put total income that was stated on her 2017 tax return, line 22 of 1040."

 

Where did you get that info, as I am in the same situation.   I have no idea if they are referring to 2017, 2018, or 2019.

 

I spent a lot of time searching these forums and of the posts I read, the majority of the responses said put total income from latest tax return. 

Unfortunately I couldn’t find an “official” answer from a government website or the instructions. 

 

I submitted our AOS and all supporting docs on January 16 and I’m still waiting for these to be accepted so I can give you an update if you like. 

 

I am unsure when the latest tax year becomes 2018. I think some people are still putting 2015, 2016, 2017 information. 

 

[pushbrk 12,114]

Current income for the self employed is the "total income" line on the 1040.  For 2017, that's line 22.  Study those I-864 instructions.

[geowrian 22,335]

25 minutes ago, kalikala said:

I am unsure when the latest tax year becomes 2018. I think some people are still putting 2015, 2016, 2017 information. 

Once you file 2018 taxes or after 2018 taxes are due (tax day normally unless you have an extension).

[myworld22 14]

On 1/31/2019 at 5:01 PM, pushbrk said:

Current income for the self employed is the "total income" line on the 1040.  For 2017, that's line 22.  Study those I-864 instructions.

 

For the 1099s self employed are we talking about income gross after deduction? Or its just a total income ( before deductions? ) which one are they gona be looking for? 

 

and does seting up a payment plan in irs affect the case incase you owe irs some taxes? 

 

 

[pushbrk 12,114]

49 minutes ago, myworld22 said:

 

For the 1099s self employed are we talking about income gross after deduction? Or its just a total income ( before deductions? ) which one are they gona be looking for? 

 

and does seting up a payment plan in irs affect the case incase you owe irs some taxes? 

 

 

It will be the taxable income, called "total income" on the 1040 form.  It's AFTER deducting business expenses on schedule C.  It is not total "revenue".  For 2017 and before it's line 22.  For 2018 (probably not filed yet) it is still total income but a different line number.  8, I think.