First year filing basic question

[sharpie11 6]

Here is the situation: I am a USC, My IR1 wife's first year in the US was 2023, when she arrived in October and got her green card, she has no income anywhere in the world, can we MFJ online using Turbotax, or do we need to go the paper route and any special declarations to treat her as a tax resident or anything else are needed from us? She has an SSN.

[Redro 4,602]

Yes. You can and should file MFJ. 

Question: 

Does she have any bank accounts overseas? 

If the amount of all   her overseas bank accounts is over $10 000 she needs to report it on your taxes AND she needs to file FBARS. 

If she has no income and no assets just file as if she was an American housewife with no job/income here... MFJ same rules apply.  

[sharpie11 6]

3 minutes ago, Redro said:

Yes. You can and should file MFJ. 

Question: 

Does she have any bank accounts overseas? 

If the amount of all   her overseas bank accounts is over $10 000 she needs to report it on your taxes AND she needs to file FBARS. 

If she has no income and no assets just file as if she was an American housewife with no job/income here... MFJ same rules apply.  

She has a bank account but its nowhere near $10,000. Do we need to attach any statement to the return stating that she chooses to be treated as a resident alien for the entire year since she was nonresident at the start of the year and resident at the end of the year (like it says here on Page No. 12 for dual status aliens), or just file online as MFJ ?

[Redro 4,602]

Just now, sharpie11 said:

She has a bank account but it’s nowhere near $10,000. Do we need to attach any statement to the return stating that she chooses to be treated as a resident alien for the entire year since she was nonresident at the start of the year and resident at the end of the year (like it says here on Page No. 12 for dual status aliens), or just file online as MFJ ?

Just file the taxes as if she was In the US for the entire year. 
If she had income she needed to exclude she would file form 2555.

Simple explanation: Wife was in the US December 31, 2023 as a green card holder so she needs to file taxes. 

[sharpie11 6]

Just now, Redro said:

Just file the taxes as if she was In the US for the entire year. 
If she had income she needed to exclude she would file form 2555.

Simple explanation: Wife was in the US December 31, 2023 as a green card holder so she needs to file taxes. 

Got it.. thank you so much!

[sharpie11 6]

4 minutes ago, Redro said:

Just file the taxes as if she was In the US for the entire year. 
If she had income she needed to exclude she would file form 2555.

Simple explanation: Wife was in the US December 31, 2023 as a green card holder so she needs to file taxes. 

Just on another topic we have children but I'm choosing not to take the child tax credit because they were living outside the US with my wife for most of the year and do not meet the requirement to have lived with me for 6 months or more in 2023. Not sure if that's the financially savvy  thing to do, but seems like the least complicated.