Married Filing Jointly with NRA Wife (No SSN/ITIN) (Split and Merged)

[CL1125 2]

Hello I'm newly married last year with I-130 in process. I am looking to file Married Filing Jointly and will send my return with the W-7 to Austin. I have a couple of questions for this super kind community:

 

• On my 1040 I have Married Filing Jointly. What should I put for my Wife's SSN in the SSN field? I've read things like leaving it blank, NRA or all 9's (as advised by 1040.com where I prepared my 1040) but I'm not sure which is correct. I also read that for her first name I should put NRA as well? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
• I know I'm so late! (5 days from deadline). However my wife and I are both abroad and read about an automatic 2 month extension if youre not in the US. Now, if I send my return and W-7 to Austin next month and it takes them 2 or 3 months to get back the ITIN, that would be past the 2 month extension deadline. Would I be penalized for filing late as the ITIN was released later? Or does the IRS consider my return filed when I send in the return and W-7 to Austin?
• Last question, does anyone know if it is OK to file separate filing status' for Federal and State. For Federal we will file jointly as my Wife made very little income last year. But I am from Massachusetts and there is a rule on their gov site (https://www.mass.gov/service-details/learn-about-filing-status-on-massachusetts-personal-income-tax) that states that if both spouses are not residents of MA they cannot file a joint return and must file Married Filing Separately. I am prepared to do this as I prepared my return with two different Tax software, but just wondering if anyone ran into the same thing: 

Sorry for so many questions, I appreciate everyone and everything I've read on here. Thanks!

[JKLSemicolon 327]

6 hours ago, CL1125 said:

Hello I'm newly married last year with I-130 in process. I am looking to file Married Filing Jointly and will send my return with the W-7 to Austin. I have a couple of questions for this super kind community:

 

• On my 1040 I have Married Filing Jointly. What should I put for my Wife's SSN in the SSN field? I've read things like leaving it blank, NRA or all 9's (as advised by 1040.com where I prepared my 1040) but I'm not sure which is correct. I also read that for her first name I should put NRA as well? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
• I know I'm so late! (5 days from deadline). However my wife and I are both abroad and read about an automatic 2 month extension if youre not in the US. Now, if I send my return and W-7 to Austin next month and it takes them 2 or 3 months to get back the ITIN, that would be past the 2 month extension deadline. Would I be penalized for filing late as the ITIN was released later? Or does the IRS consider my return filed when I send in the return and W-7 to Austin?
• Last question, does anyone know if it is OK to file separate filing status' for Federal and State. For Federal we will file jointly as my Wife made very little income last year. But I am from Massachusetts and there is a rule on their gov site (https://www.mass.gov/service-details/learn-about-filing-status-on-massachusetts-personal-income-tax) that states that if both spouses are not residents of MA they cannot file a joint return and must file Married Filing Separately. I am prepared to do this as I prepared my return with two different Tax software, but just wondering if anyone ran into the same thing: 

Sorry for so many questions, I appreciate everyone and everything I've read on here. Thanks!

 

For your first question, when submitting the paper 1040 with form W-7, I left my wife's SSN blank as the IRS will fill in the ITIN once assigned.

 

Edited to add: I would certainly not put "NRA" instead of her first name. Remember that you are also required to submit a statement indicating the choice be considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes, so putting NRA (=Non-Resident Alien) anywhere does not make sense in this case.

 

For the second question, in 2021 I sent the return and W-7 to Austin before the filing deadline and without filing an extension, and had no problems in spite of the rest of the process taking over a year.

 

Not sure about your third question.

 

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by JKLSemicolon

[TVQT1993 19]

 

1) Leave her SSN field blank, after the Austin IRS ITIN center issues the ITIN, they will enter the ITIN for your wife and pass the tax return on for processing. Do not write NRA, that is for MFS when the spouse's ITIN/SSN is not known.

 

2) I'm not sure it counts as filed when Austin gets it, because there is a chance the W-7 application is denied (for example, lacking appropriate documents to establish foreign identity). Do you expect to get a refund? If there's no balance due, there isn't a late filing penalty.

 

3) State usually follows Fed. I filled MFJ with California on a 540NR (CA non-resident or part-year resident) tax return. On one of the schedule, I entered that I was a resident all year and my spouse spent zero days in CA. They processed it just fine. But I don't know how MA would do it.

 

 

 

[Ontarkie 13,915]

~~One hijack post and its reply have been split from an unrelated thread. Post and reply have been merged with the OP's existing topic. Please do not post your question more than once and not in other member's threads.~~

[CL1125 2]

11 hours ago, JKLSemicolon said:

 

For your first question, when submitting the paper 1040 with form W-7, I left my wife's SSN blank as the IRS will fill in the ITIN once assigned.

 

Edited to add: I would certainly not put "NRA" instead of her first name. Remember that you are also required to submit a statement indicating the choice be considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes, so putting NRA (=Non-Resident Alien) anywhere does not make sense in this case.

 

For the second question, in 2021 I sent the return and W-7 to Austin before the filing deadline and without filing an extension, and had no problems in spite of the rest of the process taking over a year.

 

Not sure about your third question.

 

 

Thanks for your thorough response. For question 2, I wonder if there is a way to check with the IRS if you've filed with them or if they notify you at all. I would hate to wait a year not knowing if my taxes have been filed or not.

[CL1125 2]

9 hours ago, TVQT1993 said:

 

1) Leave her SSN field blank, after the Austin IRS ITIN center issues the ITIN, they will enter the ITIN for your wife and pass the tax return on for processing. Do not write NRA, that is for MFS when the spouse's ITIN/SSN is not known.

 

2) I'm not sure it counts as filed when Austin gets it, because there is a chance the W-7 application is denied (for example, lacking appropriate documents to establish foreign identity). Do you expect to get a refund? If there's no balance due, there isn't a late filing penalty.

 

3) State usually follows Fed. I filled MFJ with California on a 540NR (CA non-resident or part-year resident) tax return. On one of the schedule, I entered that I was a resident all year and my spouse spent zero days in CA. They processed it just fine. But I don't know how MA would do it.

 

 

 

Thanks so much for responding. We do expect a refund if filing jointly, which is why we are doing it, if not jointly would actually owe a little bit. For number 3, I have seen the Part Year resident form, maybe thats what I need to do to file jointly with MA. I was just using the standard full year resident one.

[CL1125 2]

Does anyone here have experience claiming the Automatic 2 month extension if you are abroad? From what I've read you do not need to file an extension, just attach a statement when you do actually file stating you were abroad to get it. I will send this to Austin as well.

[JKLSemicolon 327]

11 hours ago, CL1125 said:

Thanks for your thorough response. For question 2, I wonder if there is a way to check with the IRS if you've filed with them or if they notify you at all. I would hate to wait a year not knowing if my taxes have been filed or not.

If the ITIN is issued, that is a positive sign since the return can be filed by the IRS after that. In my experience we got no further notification after receiving the ITIN letter and returned original documents in the mail. Although we were owed a refund, the "Where's my Refund?" page did not show anything until right before the refund arrived, ˜9 months after getting the ITIN.

 

However, the IRS was working through a significant backlog at the time that may (?) be slightly better now.

 

There may be a way to call to check the status of the return, but the only call I made at the time was to check the status of the ITIN once it was past the published processing time from the IRS website (currently 7 weeks).

[CL1125 2]

Hello!

 

I am newly married last year so doing taxes this year as Married was new to me. For immigration, we are in the early stages having only filed I-130 4 months ago. I ended up filing Married Filing Separately and claiming FEIE on Form 2555 as I live and work with my wife in the Philippines. My Wife has no SSN/ITIN and has never been to the US. She works for a Philippine employer and made very little last year. This may be a novice question but is she required to file a return? If not is there some exemption or something she needs to apply for? For the income requirement it says that MFS is only $5 which is very low compared to all others. Other info, I e-filed my return and put her name with NRA in the SSN field (yes I was able to find software that allowed me to do so and still e-file). Thanks in advance!

[CL1125 2]

Thanks for everyone's response. Just to update I ended up filing MFS with "NRA" as my wifes SSN.This was much easier as I was able to e-file and meet the deadline (live abroad). Also, since I claimed FEIE it didn't make a difference financially which status we chose for the return. Applying for the ITIN seemed like it would be a very lengthy process and didn't want to sit in the dark for that long not knowing about our joint return.

[Mike E 11,723]

3 hours ago, CL1125 said:

This may be a novice question but is she required to file a return?

No. Congress has no authority over her.

[Crazy Cat 39,218]

5 hours ago, CL1125 said:

Hello!

 

I am newly married last year so doing taxes this year as Married was new to me. For immigration, we are in the early stages having only filed I-130 4 months ago. I ended up filing Married Filing Separately and claiming FEIE on Form 2555 as I live and work with my wife in the Philippines. My Wife has no SSN/ITIN and has never been to the US. She works for a Philippine employer and made very little last year. This may be a novice question but is she required to file a return? If not is there some exemption or something she needs to apply for? For the income requirement it says that MFS is only $5 which is very low compared to all others. Other info, I e-filed my return and put her name with NRA in the SSN field (yes I was able to find software that allowed me to do so and still e-file). Thanks in advance!

She has no requirement to file US taxes at this point.

[TBoneTX 43,058]

CL1125, you were instructed by VJ Moderation not to start separate threads on the same topic.  Your threads have been merged yet again.  One more instance, and administrative action will be applied.  Thanks in advance for your compliance.

 

VJ Moderation

[CL1125 2]

14 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

CL1125, you were instructed by VJ Moderation not to start separate threads on the same topic.  Your threads have been merged yet again.  One more instance, and administrative action will be applied.  Thanks in advance for your compliance.

 

VJ Moderation

Hi TBoneTX, deepest apologies for the violation before, am still getting used to using a forum. This new topic was about Filing Separately with no ITIN/SSN, and the previous was about filing Jointly with no ITIN/SSN. Would these still be considered the same topic? If so, very sorry again, it will not happen again. Just wanted to clairfy. Thanks!

[KeithANDJonathan 0]

On 4/17/2023 at 1:37 AM, CL1125 said:

Hello!

 

I am newly married last year so doing taxes this year as Married was new to me. For immigration, we are in the early stages having only filed I-130 4 months ago. I ended up filing Married Filing Separately and claiming FEIE on Form 2555 as I live and work with my wife in the Philippines. My Wife has no SSN/ITIN and has never been to the US. She works for a Philippine employer and made very little last year. This may be a novice question but is she required to file a return? If not is there some exemption or something she needs to apply for? For the income requirement it says that MFS is only $5 which is very low compared to all others. Other info, I e-filed my return and put her name with NRA in the SSN field (yes I was able to find software that allowed me to do so and still e-file). Thanks in advance!

Do you mind me asking what software allowed you to e-file without having a SSN for your spouse? I have filed MFS and have had to mail it in because the software I tried to use required a SSN