@karthikbr_tax , assuming that your spouse left the USA at the end of 2018, was not present in the USA during 2019, terminated her dependent visa when she left the USA shores, her income in India will ONLY come into play if, and only if, you file married filing joint ( MFJ). Filing as MFJ, doubles your standard deduction ( by approx. $12,000 ) but now her income during the calendar year 2019 comes under US tax purview and may put you in a higher tax bracket. Also to note is that India will tax her income ( i.e. the same income would be taxed by both USA and India ) and the imposed actual income tax ( not the withheld amount) would then be eligible for foreign tax credit. The foreign tax credit is recognized in full i.e. dollar for dollar but the amount that you actually can take credit ( allowable foreign tax credit ) is based on a ratio of foreign income and world income -- thus if your income is $100,000, your wife's income for the calendar year is $50,000 ( allocated and converted to US$ ), Indian tax on the wife's income is $10,000, then while US will recognize total foreign tax credit as $10,000 but ONLY 33% ( foreign income $50,000 divided by $150,000 world income ) or $3300 will be allowed as credit against your total tax liability --- the un-allowed portion of the foreign tax credit can be carried backward and forward but only against foreign earned income in those years. So in your case it would be lost.
Filing as Married Filing Separate ( MFS ), you would avpoid all these complications.
Should you choose to income your wife's income then (a) you should consider filing for an extension so that Indian taxes on your wife's income can be finalized; (b) allocate her 2019/2020 income for the calendar period of Jan through Dec 2019; (c) allocate the Indian actual tax liability to the income for the 12 months in 2019.
If you need more help on this , you are welcome to put so in comments.
I would like to assure you that while all the SuperUsers are volunteers ( and TurboTax / Intuit employees), most are current or retired tax professionals -- tax attorneys, EAs, AFSP, state registered , CPAs etc. ), others, while not being tax professionals are extremely well versed in the intricacies of TurboTax; And all the answers are generally moderated by TurboTax tax experts/moderators. In general our answers are correct. Good luck
