I was assuming you were giving up your Green Card and staying in Hong Kong, in that situation then you would file as I stated above using Dual Status and not have to report your foreign income.
If you are keeping your Green Card, then you would need to file taxes as a US Resident and claim all the income you earned world wide. Yes, you would be eligible to claim the foreign income exclusion.
Yes, you would be able to file a joint return with your wife. You would need to include all of her earnings, however, if she earned $100,000, you would likely end up paying more taxes filing a joint return with her than you would a separate return. The primary difference when filing joint versus separate (when you do not qualify for most credits) is the standard deduction. It is $13,850 for someone filing separate versus $27,700 for married filing jointly.
In both situations, your spouses SSN or ITIN must be included on the return in order to e-file.
If they do not have an SSN or ITIN and you choose to file Married Filing Separate, you can try typing NRA in as your spouses last name. Make sure you put a check mark in the box that says My spouse is a Non-Resident alien in the My info section. When you get to the end and try to transmit the return, ignore the e-file errors regarding your NRA spouse and select transmit your return. If that does not work you will need to print and mail your return and write NRA (Non Resident Alien) in the space for her SSN.
To report foreign earned income and taxes paid on that income using TurboTax Deluxe or higher click the following
- Federal
- Income and Expenses
- Scroll down and click Show More next to Less Common Income
- Click Start next to Foreign Earned Income and Exclusions
- Enter your foreign Earned Income
- Continue through the questions until you get to "Would You Like to Try and Exclude Your Foreign Earned Income?" and click Yes then continue
- If you lived and worked in a foreign country click Yes to the next question.
- Continue through the questions. If you qualify for this deduction
Please note, TurboTax will determine if you qualify for this deduction. If you did not work and live in a foreign country
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