Filing joint tax for spouse abroad

[CG2020 5]

Hello everyone,

 

its a tax year now and I am little confused On how to file joint return of spouse living abroad.

My spouse is working but making very little money.. In year 2018 she just earned $500 in abroad.

I earned close to $60,000. 

I dont think e file will be allowed because she doesnt have SSN or ITIN number.

 

- do we have to show my wife income too in tax return?

- what documents are required for IRS to file joint return. Do we need to do paper file?

 

I heard we need certify copy of her passport notorized from US Embassy from her country which we need to put along when filing tax return.. Not sure if this is correct..

please advice the best approach..

Edited January 14, 2019 by CG2020

[John & Rose 7,237]

6 minutes ago, CG2020 said:

Hello everyone,

 

its a tax year now and I am little confused On how to file joint return of spouse living abroad.

My spouse is working but making very little money.. In year 2018 she just earned $500 in abroad.

I earned close to $60,000. 

I dont think e file will be allowed because she doesnt have SSN or ITIN number.

 

- do we have to show my wife income too in tax return?

- what documents are required for IRS to file joint return. Do we need to do paper file?

 

I heard we need certify copy of her passport notorized from US Embassy from her country which we need to put along when filing tax return.. Not sure if this is correct..

what other documents are required?

please advice the best approach..

You have to send her actual passport along with form W-7 with your tax return in order to get her an ITIN.  If you include a self addressed stamped envelope they send the passport back quickly.  You have to mail the first tax return.  Once she establishes the ITIN you can e-file again.  I believe there is a place for foreign income but the threshold is pretty high before it impacts your taxes.

 

I am just in the process of learning this too.  We were just married last June.

Edited January 14, 2019 by John & Rose

[Just Paul 4,591]

Not sure this helps but we got a certified copy of my wife's passport in the Filipino Consulate in Hong Kong when we got married.  That along with the letter from the bank got us an ITIN prior to the tax filing.

 

There is also an acceptance agent program that the IRS offers.  Note that most people on this list charge for that.  A friend of mine used that option too.

 

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/acceptance-agent-program

 

[Just Paul 4,591]

Also you can also file taxes as married filing separately but then you lose the benefit of having "being married".   You can later amend that return to include her.

 

It is easy to exclude her foreign income if you do file together. 

[Russ&Caro 1,548]

You do have to file a form stating your wife's income abroad, no matter how little it is. However, close to $100k of foreign income is exempt from federal income tax.

 

Four years ago we didn't have an e-file option our first year of filing taxes together. We had to file paper returns. Might still be the case.

 

We applied for ITIN but there was no requirement for sending the foreign spouse's passport. Anyway, we got denied the ITIN for the reason that she would be immigrating soon and therefore qualify for an SSN instead.

 

Since we didn't have an ITIN, we filed as MFJ. Then, the IRS sent back a refund based on MFS stating we could file an amended return upon getting an SSN. Once we got the SSN, we filed an amended return and the IRS processed another refund which was the difference btwn the MFS refund and the bigger MFJ refund. Note, if you don't want to send your wife's passport, you can go through these same steps without an ITIN and then simply wait for her arrival and obtain an SSN.

[John & Rose 7,237]

I have her passport with me.  My concern would be if and when the IRS actually processes the ITIN.  We are 130 days into our CR-1 process and the timing may really suck if I don't get her passport back by the time I visit her again in April.  I am planning on filing as soon as I get my W2s but I am not sure anyone will be there to accept my return!

 

[CG2020 5]

Went through below IRS website:

it says we can make choice to either file Joint or filing seperatly.

 

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-alien-spouse

 

IRS website states: 

Attach a statement, signed by both spouses, to your joint return for the first tax year for which the choice applies. It should contain the following information:

1. A declaration that one spouse was a nonresident alien and the other spouse a U.S. citizen or resident alien on the last day of your tax year, and that you choose to be treated as U.S. residents for the entire tax year
2. The name, address, and identification number of each spouse. (If one spouse died, include the name and address of the person making the choice for the deceased spouse.)

IMO: When they said Identification number, I believe we can put her country’s passport number.

One of my friend filed tax with similar case  by attaching statement signed by both spouse, and attached notarized possport copy from US embassy by paying US $50 and W7 form.

ITIN was not required..

They got refund without any issues.

I think this is how we need to proceed..

 

Edited January 14, 2019 by CG2020

[suhridkhan 28]

2 hours ago, CG2020 said:

Went through below IRS website:

it says we can make choice to either file Joint or filing seperatly.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-alien-spouse

IRS website states: 

Attach a statement, signed by both spouses, to your joint return for the first tax year for which the choice applies. It should contain the following information:

1. A declaration that one spouse was a nonresident alien and the other spouse a U.S. citizen or resident alien on the last day of your tax year, and that you choose to be treated as U.S. residents for the entire tax year
2. The name, address, and identification number of each spouse. (If one spouse died, include the name and address of the person making the choice for the deceased spouse.)

IMO: When they said Identification number, I believe we can put her country’s passport number.

One of my friend filed tax with similar case  by attaching statement signed by both spouse, and attached notarized possport copy from US embassy by paying US $50 and W7 form.

ITIN was not required..

They got refund without any issues.

I think this is how we need to proceed..

Thank you very much. This is very useful information.

I don't have my wife's passport with me, and I don't want to bring it here since we might get our interview in a few months. So my option is to get the passport notarized at the US embassy.

I assume my option is to get her passport certified at the US embassy.

Edited January 14, 2019 by suhridkhan

[MsKayC 108]

Hello all I did this last year for my husband. I sent in his passport along with paper tax forms and the W7 form, it took about 2 months. It was done during the uscis process. Our country does not certify the passport and the us embassy said it did not do it as well. Our only option was to send the original. I didnt send in a self addressed envelope but thankfully the passport came back in one peace.  We got the itin number back before the passport

[qianl 54]

1 hour ago, MsKayC said:

Hello all I did this last year for my husband. I sent in his passport along with paper tax forms and the W7 form, it took about 2 months. It was done during the uscis process. Our country does not certify the passport and the us embassy said it did not do it as well. Our only option was to send the original. I didnt send in a self addressed envelope but thankfully the passport came back in one peace.  We got the itin number back before the passport

I need to do this 

[Khallaf 646]

I did this for my husband last year as well, I sent a self address prepaid overnight package so they could return his passport, and a letter asking them to do this as quickly as possible and return the passport as he would need it for interview, I got his passport back in 3 weeks from the time I mailed it out.

[jimmy007oc 30]

bring W7 and his/her passport to local IRS accepted agent. they will process your application and return the passport back. i did it last for my wife.  

[Jeanne Adil 1,651]

23 hours ago, John & Rose said:

You have to send her actual passport along with form W-7 with your tax return in order to get her an ITIN.  If you include a self addressed stamped envelope they send the passport back quickly.  You have to mail the first tax return.  Once she establishes the ITIN you can e-file again.  I believe there is a place for foreign income but the threshold is pretty high before it impacts your taxes.

 

I am just in the process of learning this too.  We were just married last June.

you file him as spouse on the tax returns /can not efile as IRS needs originals of the spouse birth certificate (or other ID) and original of marriage certificate

he fills out the W7 and can email that to you

you can file normally with the w7 and supporting documents included

i did for 2010 when i married and for following 2011, 2012, 2103 and 2014 as he did not get visa till 2015

[yogik_yo 6]

This is what I did and entire process took less than 2 month from filing to receiving refund. 

1.Get your spouse passport certified(Not Notarized). The passport issuing agency back in your country should be able to do that. In my case Ministry of foreign affair office did it. I am not sure if USA embassy will do that but you can inquiry with them. 

2. Get the certified copy mailed in to the USA. 

3. Find an IRS Acceptance agent local to your place. I used H&R Block. 

4. Make an appointment with the agent. Make sure you mention you want to file your spouse ITIN(Individual Tax Identification Number) along with your tax return. 

5. The agent will prepare form w7 for your spouse ITIN and file your tax at the same time. The agent will verify your certified copy of passport and send it along with the form to IRS. 

6. SInce your spouse won't have ITIN/SSN, the form needs to mailed and can't be e-filed. 

7. You will need signature of your spouse on both w7 and tax form.

8. You can mail them the forms to have it signed and send back to you again. Once you get the signed forms back just mail the entire package as mentioned by your tax agent.

9. IRS will receive your both forms and start the process.

10. They will issue ITIN for your spouse and apply that ITIN to your tax form and send for further processing. 

 

This will let you do both at a time and will not require to send the original passport.

 

You can also just process w7 and wait to receive the ITIN and then file taxes but for me doing both at a time worked out well. I paid less than $100 to h&r block to do my taxes and w7.

[Ryan H 3,790]

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