@rnalves so from all you say I get -->
1. you were in the USA on F-1 visa ( yes? ), finished your OPT, have SSN and left the USA during the first quarter of 2020
2.You are married to a US person ( US citizen/Green Card) and have filed jointly for at least 2019. Thus you were treated as a Resident for Tax purposes ( because you passed Substantial Presence Test or because you requested to be treated as such do you can file joint)
3. You jointly owned a property ( did you use it as your main home ? when did you acquire it ? how long did you both of you use it as main home ? ) and sold this in 2020. The title company withheld 15% of the sales price for federal taxes under FIRPTA and probably some amount for State ( what state ? ). You have proof of this withholding shown on HUD-1 ( settlement form ) and/or other documents
4. Now you need to file your federal and State returns for 2020 and need to reconcile the FIRPTA withholding ---- generally this withholding should be entered under "other" taxes withheld/ paid on schedule-3 of the form 1040.
5. Issue here is whether you can indeed file form 1040 or are you forced to file form 1040-NR
Does this cover the situation? Is your spouse with you in BR? Note that if you are willing to request that you be treated as a US person i.e. expose your "no-US sourced " earnings to US taxes, you should be able to file as a joint. I know it is taking a longtime but perhaps you can go through this note and then correct /answer any remaining questions. The idea is to get you qualified to file jointly.
Else, you need to be able to show your spouse as the ONLY owner of the disposed off property and thus subject to US taxes and you become a Non-US person filing a dual status person -- 1040- for the first two months of 2020 and then 1040-NR for the rest of the year covering any US sourced earnings ( such as interest , dividend, etc. etc. ). And in that case your wife files as a US person covering her world income including the sale of the property etc.
Does this make sense ?
