How to ammend tax return after spouse moved to us? i have 3 questions.

[RobpalermoFR 1]

Hello dear community, i(us citizen) filed my taxes last year as married filing seperatly because my spouse was abroad and did not have ssn.

she entered usa with cr1 visa, and got her ssn.

 

please i'm seeking help with 3 questions:

1 - does it make sense (financially) to ammend the tax return? do people get money back when they ammend?

2 - how is it the process? is it easy? (i used taxact online website)

3 - how do i include my wife's foreign income (she made 12k $ entire year in foreign currency)

 

any help is appreciated. thank you..

[JeanneAdil 7,234]

of course it is worth it as the deduction for 2 is twice the amount and you could be eligible for higher refund if u do not owe current or past taxes/ we  go not know your circumstances 

 

since 2019 IRS allows amend tax returns electronically for past 2 years

1040x is the form 

foreign income exclusion form is 2555

The maximum Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) was $120,000 for the 2023 tax year and increased to $126,500 for the 2024 tax year. These are the amounts that a qualifying U.S. citizen or resident alien living abroad could exclude from their U.S. federal income tax. 

 

you could have filed as MFJ in the appropiate years using IRS guides for nonresident alien spouse saving a lot of paperwork

[Crazy Cat 45,244]

56 minutes ago, RobpalermoFR said:

Hello dear community, i(us citizen) filed my taxes last year as married filing seperatly because my spouse was abroad and did not have ssn.

she entered usa with cr1 visa, and got her ssn.

 

please i'm seeking help with 3 questions:

1 - does it make sense (financially) to ammend the tax return? do people get money back when they ammend?

2 - how is it the process? is it easy? (i used taxact online website)

3 - how do i include my wife's foreign income (she made 12k $ entire year in foreign currency)

 

any help is appreciated. thank you..

 

1.  It usually depends on several factors....If there is a tax treaty between the US and your wife's home country, it is probably worth amending.  Just remember her income will include all world-wide income regardless of where the income was earned.

2.  File a 1040X.  It is not difficult.

3.  You list it as her  income.  You must list it in US Dollars using the IRS average exchange rate (her country) for the tax year.

Edited August 23 by Crazy Cat

[RobpalermoFR 1]

4 hours ago, Crazy Cat said:

 

1.  It usually depends on several factors....If there is a tax treaty between the US and your wife's home country, it is probably worth amending.  Just remember her income will include all world-wide income regardless of where the income was earned.

2.  File a 1040X.  It is not difficult.

3.  You list it as her  income.  You must list it in US Dollars using the IRS average exchange rate (her country) for the tax year.

thank you so much. i just have simple follow up questions. 

1 - my wifes country has tax treaty between us. (i just googled). can i just convert her total income and enter it in USD as exchange rate last year?

 

2. is 1040x online or paper? i filed my taxes using turbotax. is there any other form besides 1040x? 

 

3. my wife had income i foreign currency and when i convert it to usd, it makes less than 10k$. how do i submit proof of income? they don't have w2s etc in her country. there is only money coming in monthly to her checking account. thats it.

[Crazy Cat 45,244]

9 minutes ago, RobpalermoFR said:

thank you so much. i just have simple follow up questions. 

1 - my wifes country has tax treaty between us. (i just googled). can i just convert her total income and enter it in USD as exchange rate last year?

 

2. is 1040x online or paper? i filed my taxes using turbotax. is there any other form besides 1040x? 

 

3. my wife had income i foreign currency and when i convert it to usd, it makes less than 10k$. how do i submit proof of income? they don't have w2s etc in her country. there is only money coming in monthly to her checking account. thats it.

 

1.  Yes.

2.  1040X can be filed electronically for last 2 years.

3.  There is no need to submit proof...unless you are audited.  List the changed income and changed filing status on the 1040X.  W-2s are restricted to US employee income.

 

In my case, we simply submit a spreadsheet to our CPA every year which shows the source and converted income based on exchange rate.

Edited August 23 by Crazy Cat

[JeanneAdil 7,234]

Please complete a timeline ID'ing bene's home country

that helps answer your querys

[S2N 424]

I’d say the main factor here would be the cost to have a CPA prepare the return. The foreign tax credit part is pretty technical and while you can DIY, I would not advise you to: knowing what foreign taxes can be deducted, how to treat any retirement plans, etc. are things that having a professional is useful for. It’s not hard to type the numbers into TurboTax, what’s difficult is knowing what box in TurboTax you should be typing the numbers into and what counts.

 

Our return swung me from owing $98 if I had filed MFS to getting a $3800 refund. My husband and I also have very different incomes so it was very beneficial for me. If your spouse had a similar income to you overseas and was in a low income tax country, it might not benefit more than the cost of preparation.

 

I’d say for the overwhelming majority of people MFJ with a foreign spouse is the best way to do it, but since you previously turbo taxed it and asked for the cost-benefit analysis, also thought it worth noting the circumstances where it might not make sense.

[S2N 424]

6 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

The maximum Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) was $120,000 for the 2023 tax year and increased to $126,500 for the 2024 tax year. These are the amounts that a qualifying U.S. citizen or resident alien living abroad could exclude from their U.S. federal income tax. 

Also worth pointing out FEIE does not apply in this case since they’re getting the benefit of the doubled tax brackets and double standard deduction. The choice would be to treat the foreign spouse as a U.S. resident for tax purposes via a 6013(g) election, which excludes the ability to claim FEIE. They’d report then claim credit for any eligible tax paid in the foreign country.

 

This is a common mistake for DIYers.

Edited August 23 by S2N

[RobpalermoFR 1]

@S2N @JeanneAdil @Crazy Cat

I want to say thank you for help but i am just more confused. forgive me for not knowing enough for tax rules. can you provide me some guidence based on my updated case

• I (us citizen) married my foreign wife in 2023.
• i file my 2023 and 2024 taxes Married filing separately and entered wife's ssn NRA.
• I already paid my taxes for 2023 and 2024.
• wife's country and us has tax treaty according to google.
• wife entered usa with cr1 visa in 2025. she got her ssn and green card.
• wife worked abroad during 2023 and 2024 and her income was 15k in USD for entire year. this is how much she made in each year from her job. 

( NOTE: want to amend my 2023 and 2024 tax return ONLY BECAUSE IF I CAN GET SOME MONEY BACK from IRS. 

Financial need is my only reason for amending. i don't think i have to amend because i did everything right as far as taxes while cr1 process )

 

now my basic questions are:

1- Can i just fill 1040x and is that the only form i need to mail? 

2- is Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) another form? 

3 - how will i know if amending will give me any tax benefit? i am assuming it will because i will get a different tax bracket and my wife made a little income (15k a year)

4- will amending have any disadvantages? 

 

i hope i'm not asking wrong questions, again thank you if you can point me to right direction.

Edited August 23 by RobpalermoFR

[S2N 424]

1 hour ago, RobpalermoFR said:

now my basic questions are:

1- Can i just fill 1040x and is that the only form i need to mail? 

2- is Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) another form? 

3 - how will i know if amending will give me any tax benefit? i am assuming it will because i will get a different tax bracket and my wife made a little income (15k a year)

4- will amending have any disadvantages? 

1) You would need to fill out 1040X and all the additional applicable schedules, which would include schedule 1 to declare your wife’s foreign income and the schedule/form for the foreign tax credit. As I mentioned on my post I would highly recommend paying a CPA to do this as claiming the foreign tax credit is probably the most technical tax accounting heavy thing that most people will encounter on their 1040.

 

2) You cannot claim the FEIE. It’s not applicable in your case and my response on that was for you and any others searching afterwards to say DO NOT try to claim it and also make the 6013(g) election to treat your spouse as a tax resident and file jointly. It’s specifically not allowed in your circumstances.

 

3) Take your taxable income (box 15) for those years and add your wife’s income in USD. Then subtract the standard for that year (the number in box 12) from the number you just calculated. Then go to This page for 2023 and this page for 2024. Using the number calculated find your bracket: subtract the lowest end of the bracket from your taxable income and multiply what is left over it by the % indicated. Then add it to the dollar amount in the dollar plus XX% box. This is your estimated tax before any credit. Go to box 33 on your 1040. Subtract the estimated tax you just calculated from that amount. This is your overpayment. Then subtract from that what is currently in box 34. This is your additional refund. Subtract from that amount $700 for a CPA to prepare it (being conservative and assuming you don’t have anything else complicated.) This is the net amount you would receive back by amending before the foreign tax credit which would probably be an additional $50-$200 based on your wife’s income. For someone with a spouse who has more income it’d be more. I’m not including it in the calculation as that’s highly technical and depends on the tax structure of your wife’s country of origin and any treaty. This is the basic math, and you see how many steps it is. This is why you should hire a CPA.

 

4) It would have no tax disadvantage. It could potentially impact social assistance or other government programs you qualified for. Given you sponsored her and she made so little, it’s unlikely to impact you; but putting it out there for anyone else searching this thread.

 

Also disclaimer that this is not tax advice and you should consult your own tax advisor.

Edited August 23 by S2N

[top_secret 2,744]

Turbotax and probably just about any other tax preparation software has an amend return option whereby you just go through the whole guided process for your return again making whatever changes that need to be made and at the end it spits out a PDF prepared 1040X ready to print and mail.  Generally super easy if you used tax preparation software and potentially quite a significantly greater additional return.

[S2N 424]

On 8/29/2025 at 1:00 PM, top_secret said:

Turbotax and probably just about any other tax preparation software has an amend return option whereby you just go through the whole guided process for your return again making whatever changes that need to be made and at the end it spits out a PDF prepared 1040X ready to print and mail.  Generally super easy if you used tax preparation software and potentially quite a significantly greater additional return.

The issue is with the classification of foreign taxes paid and whether or not they’re eligible for the credit or other deductions.
 

People also often screw up things like improperly deducting health care withholding/tax or retirement for foreign spouses. There’s just a lot of words that have technical meanings in the Internal Revenue Code that don’t really translate well to taxes where one of the couple lives overseas. TurboTax will guide you through it, but it won’t tell you what counts to put in the boxes for foreign items.

 

Like all things with the government, people are free to DIY it, but just because you can doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to do it.