AmyC
Employee Tax Expert

Retirement tax questions

2024: Since you filed MFJ and your wife was NRA in 2024, you may have made the election to treat your spouse as a US resident for tax purposes. Which means, all worldwide income must be included. Since your wife filed a CA return, you will be able to add her income and a credit for foreign tax paid on that income.

Amend - add income to 1040 and foreign tax credit on Form 1116. Double check that your return included the election to treat spouse as a resident since this election required a signed statement attached to your return. You may need to include Form 8938 FATCA.

 

Each year, check if you need to file FATCA and FBAR . Here is a comparison of the FATCA (Form 8938) and FBAR requirements.

 

2025: 

Canada: I am not a Canada expert but she is married to you and living outside of Canada with a US green card so I find it unlikely that she would be a resident. When she reports her rental house that is US income to Canada, she can claim a credit for foreign tax paid. 

 

US: Owning a business along with the rental house and any other income will be reported on the US tax return. All world-wide income goes on the US return. The tax charged by Canada on the business and other Canadian income will go on the Form 1116 for tax credit to the US for tax paid to Canada.

 

Can you do this in TurboTax and should you are probably different answers. Yes you can file with TurboTax. It may be worth hiring a professional that specialized in the US -Canada cross border tax for this year so you can better learn all the rules and what you need to do this year. Then, you can file with us with confidence after that.

TurboTax does have the Canadian and American software and there is help in both communities. Having one person get it right to start with, really sounds great: but, I don't know if you can find one in Guam or if your wife knows somebody that knows somebody.

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