@niranjan-litu , Namaste ji
Making the following assumptions :
1. You a US person ( citizen/ GreenCard / Resident for Tax purposes )
2. Your Tax home is US
3. Your spouse lives abroad, has identity documents ( Indian Passport etc. ) , within reasonable travel distance to US consulate or has access to a "verifying agent" ( explained later )
4. reference -- Nonresident spouse | Internal Revenue Service
Given the above to be true:
(a) you prepare your return, MFJ status, using a dummy SSN ( such as 123-54-6000, but not a duplicate of your own SSN ). For income you include your W-2 etc. and include her Indian income for the calendar year 2024 ( gross income before any deductions, TYDS etc. ).
(b) When all done ( for both federal and state and passed all TurboTax checks ) , choose "file by mail". Print the return ( Federal and State ).
(c) Correct the printed return by replacing her SSN entry with the words " N R A". Date , Sign -- NOTE : your wife also must wet sign and date these documents as if she was here in the US.
(d) Go to IRS site , download form W-7 and its instructions. Have her fill out all the relevant information.
(e) Make a copy of all the required documents as described in the instructions for form W-7.
(f) Have her visit the US Consulate ( or "verifying agent") to certify the copies as true.
(g)Prepare, sign, date a note signed by both of you that you want your wife to be treated as resident for tax purposes.
(f) Mail all of the above to the IRS.
This should result in (A) exposing her income to the US ( federal and State ); (B) Any Indian tax on the same income ( her year income for 2024/2025 allocated to US tax year 2024 ) would now be eligible for foreign tax credit ( per the US-India tax treaty ) and (C) a retroactive issuance of ITIN for your wife.
Note that once she has been included as a resident for tax purposes, it will continue for all future years.
My preference for such scenarios is TurboTax Windows download of Home & Business version.
Does this help ? Is there more I can do for you ?
Namaste ji
pk
