Should I file N400 based on 3yrs or 5yrs rule?

[Luckydog 2]

Hi guys,

 

I need your advices on filing N400. I came here with CR1 visa in 2017, and I have 10yrs green card on hand. I didn’t file N400 for citizenship in 2020 based on 3yrs rule but I’d like to start filing now. I’ve been living here for 5.5yrs now without going out of country. My questions are:

 

1. Should I file N400 based on 3yrs or 5yrs rule?

2. I haven’t started working here yet for some reasons so I have no tax return. Only my husband has it. We have all other required documents such as marriage certificate, photos together, joint bank accounts, joint health insurance, joint ownership of house and car, etc.. Since I have no tax return to show, am I illegible to apply for citizenship? If yes, would it be successful? 

 

Thank you in advance.  

[Crazy Cat 39,318]

1.  File under the 5 year rule.

2. Did You and your husband file a joint return for 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.   If so, you DID file taxes.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Crazy Cat

[Crazy Cat 39,318]

If you earned no income, there would be no legal requirement to file taxes.  However, with no income, you could have (and probably should have) filed a joint return with your spouse each year.  Be ready to explain that to the IO at your N-400 interview.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Crazy Cat

[Luckydog 2]

43 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

If you earned no income, there would be no legal requirement to file taxes.  However, with no income, you could have (and probably should have) filed a joint return with your spouse each year.  Be ready to explain that to the IO at your N-400 interview.

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, we did not file joint return. Should we file joint return starting from this year and postpone filing N400 to next years? 

[Crazy Cat 39,318]

6 minutes ago, Luckydog said:

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, we did not file joint return. Should we file joint return starting from this year and postpone filing N400 to next years? 

Did your spouse file taxes for those years?  If you had no income, there was no requirement for you to have filed taxes.  

[Chancy 6,233]

*** Moved from US Citizenship Progress Reports to General Discussion ***

 

[SteveInBostonI130 3,319]

2 hours ago, Luckydog said:

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, we did not file joint return. Should we file joint return starting from this year and postpone filing N400 to next years? 

 

WHAT???

 

Why not?  If your husband filed MFS, then you guys gave free money to the IRS.  If he filed Single, that was a no-no and he gave free money to the IRS.  If he filed head of household, he gave a little less free money to the IRS but he still forked over $$ that you guys could have kept or got refunded.

 

This is not even accounting for the stimulus money you guys missed out on.

 

Get on the phone with a tax preparer and look into amending as many previous returns as you can.

[Luckydog 2]

9 minutes ago, SteveInBostonI130 said:

 

WHAT???

 

Why not?  If your husband filed MFS, then you guys gave free money to the IRS.  If he filed Single, that was a no-no and he gave free money to the IRS.  If he filed head of household, he gave a little less free money to the IRS but he still forked over $$ that you guys could have kept or got refunded.

 

This is not even accounting for the stimulus money you guys missed out on.

 

Get on the phone with a tax preparer and look into amending as many previous returns as you can.

Yes, he filed MFS since I came here in 2017. Honestly, I have very little knowledge about tax filing and did not know that we can amend previous returns. Thanks for your suggestion. Really appreciate it. We will look into amending previous returns. If we can do that way things will work out a lot easier for us. 

[Crazy Cat 39,318]

2 hours ago, Luckydog said:

Yes, he filed MFS since I came here in 2017. Honestly, I have very little knowledge about tax filing and did not know that we can amend previous returns. Thanks for your suggestion. Really appreciate it. We will look into amending previous returns. If we can do that way things will work out a lot easier for us. 

Your husband also has very little knowledge of tax filing.  I can not think of a single reason to file MFS if only one spouse has income.....it doesn't make any sense at all.  You must tell the IO, at your citizenship interview, that you had no income, and you were not required to file taxes (If he/she asks). 

[Luckydog 2]

1 hour ago, Crazy Cat said:

Your husband also has very little knowledge of tax filing.  I can not think of a single reason to file MFS if only one spouse has income.....it doesn't make any sense at all.  You must tell the IO, at your citizenship interview, that you had no income, and you were not required to file taxes (If he/she asks). 

Agree with you. We both need to learn more about tax filing. Thank you so much for your valuable input. 

[WaterLeaf 199]

So if I'm reading this right, you're both married since 2017, never been separated, right? That means yall should have been filing as Married Filing Jointly (MFJ).

Not that the fact it's giving IRS free money back (or some cases, you will owe under a certain condition, so be prepared for that) but you're also not doing it right because when you're required to submit your tax returns to the USCIS, they look at the tax form and see if you are filing MFJ. Anything else will be in a question.

So to help you get started and prepare, find a really good CPA that help correct these. You'll type out the question/situation, copy and paste and find CPA that will work with you on this. On the backstory I've seen some people file as Single to take advantage of more money back than to file MFJ and that is an exploit, but it doesn't mean it's right. Anyway, to also help you out of what you'll want to do is go to the IRS website and request transcript all the way back to 2017. Get all of the copies of it. Then when you finally find the good CPA, you'll bring all the files with you (keep it organized!) and give them to the CPA. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript

So yes, you should have been filing with him as MFJ regardless if you worked or not, got unemployment, etc.

The fun part - It can be fixed. They can 'amend' for correction, and then once completed the amend and the result of that helps with your case. Doing the right thing help you move forward from the mistake.

Notice: I'm not a CPA, and was a Paid Tax Preparer for a couple of months. Other than that, I've filed with my Husband MFJ all these years and I file for ourselves mostly except 1 year I gave my 2016 tax situation to a paid preparer due to weird 'health insurance marketplace' situation. But this should be easy to fix for CPA.

Edited February 15, 2023 by WaterLeaf

[OldUser 4,880]

48 minutes ago, WaterLeaf said:

So if I'm reading this right, you're both married since 2017, never been separated, right? That means yall should have been filing as Married Filing Jointly (MFJ).

You do not have to be separated to use MFS. It's a tax strategy which is perfectly legal. It's used when one spouse has a lot of deductions for medical charges for example.

 

48 minutes ago, WaterLeaf said:

On the backstory I've seen some people file as Single to take advantage of more money back than to file MFJ and that is an exploit, but it doesn't mean it's right.

Single or Married File Separate? I hope you're not using the terms interchangeably. They mean different things, and again you don't have to be separated to use MFS.

 

MFS only works for some situations. MFJ works for majority cases.

Edited February 15, 2023 by OldUser

[Adventine 3,187]

17 hours ago, Crazy Cat said:

Your husband also has very little knowledge of tax filing.  I can not think of a single reason to file MFS if only one spouse has income.....it doesn't make any sense at all.  You must tell the IO, at your citizenship interview, that you had no income, and you were not required to file taxes (If he/she asks). 

 

I can think of a few reasons: if the husband didn't want his wife to know how much he was earning, and/or he wasn't declaring all his income to the IRS. 

Edited February 15, 2023 by Adventine

[WaterLeaf 199]

21 hours ago, OldUser said:

You do not have to be separated to use MFS. It's a tax strategy which is perfectly legal. It's used when one spouse has a lot of deductions for medical charges for example.

 

Single or Married File Separate? I hope you're not using the terms interchangeably. They mean different things, and again you don't have to be separated to use MFS.

 

MFS only works for some situations. MFJ works for majority cases.

Well yes they can file MFS if under certain condition. https://www.irs.gov/publications/p504

And no, I'm not using the term interchangeably. I've seen it within the last 2 months of filing taxes for other. It's dangerous for me to let other file illegally as they wish because as a tax preparer if you file it wrong and the IRS find out the IRS get to mark you up with the fee. I'm not going to file thing wrongly for others. Screw that. But it's not just that, the IRS look at all kinds of things too. https://www.irs.gov/payments/tax-preparer-penalties

Also, if a filer MFS is using Itemized Deduction, the other MFS also need to file itemized as well. It isn't 1 standard and the other itemized. https://www.irs.gov/faqs/itemized-deductions-standard-deduction/other-deduction-questions/other-deduction-questions It is usually better for MFJ though.

Ok so in order not to go-off topic - Tax questions always can be found online or to other CPA available. I hope OP get the understanding of what they need.

Edited February 16, 2023 by WaterLeaf
Adding links.