I am a US citizen living in Europe long term. My wife is a European citizen with no ties to the US. We got married in 2019 and are still living in Europe.
For the tax year 2019 I filed as 'Married Filing Separate' as we were not ready to file a joint return. The tax treatment was quite disadvantageous in my view.
For the tax year 2020 we are now ready to file 'Married Filing Jointly' reporting our worldwide income. I have requested an extension until December 15 and will be paper filing by mail with:
- a request for an ITIN for my spouse using form W7 and certified copies of her passport
- statement requesting treatment as US residents for 2020 (and later years) for tax purposes
I've also gone back to TurboTax 2019 and started an amended return to change the filing status to filing jointly and see that we can get a large refund vs. my original MFS filing.
Questions are:
1) Do I paper file my 2019 amendment alongside my 2020 return or wait for the ITIN to be issued?
2) Our statement requesting joint filing states "we request for joint filing for 2020 as the first year per IRC 7701 (b)(1)(A)". Will this statement / choice block my ability to amend filing status for 2019 in any way?
thank you
