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My advice is to consult a local tax professional or tax lawyer who has experience representing clients before the IRS. You are allowed to change from MFJ to MFS before the due date of the original tax return, but doing so is very rare. I can't find any IRS instructions for how to do it. You are not likely to find a tax professional who has ever done this for a client. The Internal Revenue Manual, which is a manual of procedures followed by IRS employees, says that you can do it, but it doesn't have any instructions for the taxpayers. You can tell the tax professional to refer to IRM 21.6.1.5.5.   When you meet with the tax professional, bring copies of your original joint tax return, the amended returns that you filed, and the letter from the IRS.  

I'm still going through immigration I don't have leaves remain or anything here yet so I would be astonished if I had any tax liability I don't have a work permit or anything of that nature did have been more research and I found I'd have to file as an as a non-resident because I was only in the country for 18 days out of this year

If you are a US citizen or green card holder, you file a US tax return and pay US tax on all your world-wide income, no matter where the income is from or where you are living.   If you surrender your citizenship, or surrender your green card, you are a non-resident alien.  (This also applies if you never were a green card holder or citizen, of course).  As a non-resident alien, you file a special US tax return (1040-NR) that only pays US tax on "US-sourced income".  Pensions, including 401k plans, are taxed based on where you were living when you did the work.   That means that your 401k withdrawals will be taxed by the US no matter where you live in the world and no matter where you are a citizen.   The withdrawal may also be taxed by your home country, but that would depend on their rules, and whether or not they give you a break for being taxed twice is up to them.   If the US has a tax treaty with the other country, that might change how your 401k is taxed, you would have to let us know the other country and someone could try and look it up.   As a non-US citizen, the 401k trustee is required to keep mandatory withholding of 30%.  When you file your non-resident tax return, if the withholding is more than the tax you owe, you get the difference back as a refund. 

The 6-digit principal business code is not a code assigned to you personally. It's a code that describes the classification of your business. We can probably help, or at least make suggestions for the correct code to use, if you tell us what kind of business you have. What is your primary product or service? Is it a retail type of business or are your customers other businesses? BUT - The tag below your question says that you are using TurboTax Deluxe Online. You can't enter business income in Deluxe Online unless you have no business expenses and no income forms such as 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, or 1099-K. You would normally use TurboTax Premium if you have business income. ALSO, The tag below your question says that you are using TurboTax Live. If that's true, you should address your questions to a TurboTax Live tax expert. You are paying extra for that service. See the following FAQ for instructions to contact a TurboTax Live tax expert. How do I connect with a tax expert in TurboTax Live?  

Q. So, to confirm, if this is the “lower number,” our dependent will not owe any tax (at their rate) on any portion of the $7,137 unearned income? A. Essentially,  yes.   What happens is that form 8615 is used to calculate the student's tax, instead of some other form or just looking up taxable income in the tax tables.   Q. –Re: the need (for the student) to file, in past exchanges you’ve said anyone with earned income > $400 needs to file. Is this self-employment income only? A. Yes.   Q. Beyond having total income > $15,750, my student needs to file to report taxable scholarships and 529 taxable earnings, right? A. Yes, but only if the filing threshold's for those income types are met.*   Q. Taxed at their rate, not ours? A. That depends on the various amounts and the form 8615 calculation.  But, probably not from what you've described.    * Your dependent student must file a tax return for 2024 if he had any of the following: Total income (wages, salaries, taxable scholarship etc.) of more than $14,600 ($15,750 for 2025).  Unearned income (interest, dividends, capital gains, unemployment, taxable portion of 529 distribution, but not any scholarship) of more than $1300. Unearned income (not including scholarship) over $450 and gross income of more than $1300 ($1350 for 2025).  Household employee income (e.g. baby sitting, lawn mowing) over $2600 ($14,600 if under age 18)  Other self employment income over $400, including money on a form 1099-NEC    

Thanks   My question was incomplete and I hit post too soon. I paid quite a bit in April and was required to pay estimated taxes each quarter and have been doing that.  I didn’t request any adjustments (nor do I even know how) so I don’t know why I just got a notice saying they adjusted as I requested and separately got a refund check for about 10 percent of my amount due last April.   Called the IRS number they provided and after waiting 2 1/2 hours finally got a human who proceeded to transfer and cut me off.   Contacted TaxAudit to see if they could help. They required an enormous amount documentation directly from me even after I authorized and they received access to my returns and further despite their acknowledgement I was not being audited.   Anyway lots of frustration here. I’ll try and call IRS again tomorrow but was curious whether anyone else might know what’s going on.

  I NEED A COPY OF MY W-2  (or 1099)      W-2's come from employers.  There is not a federal or national website that provides W-2’s.     TurboTax does not have a copy of your W-2—the Wage & Tax Statement—issued to you by your employer, (nor does TurboTax have copies of your 1099’s).   You should always save those documents for your own records. You could ask the employer(s) for copies or you can get a copy from Social Security (for a fee of $62).   To get a copy of a W-2 from Social Security https://faq.ssa.gov/en-us/Topic/article/KA-02501   https://www.irs.gov/help-resources/tools-faqs/faqs-for-individuals/frequently-asked-tax-questions-answers/irs-procedures/transcript-or-copy-of-form-w-2/transcript-or-copy-of-form-w-2     If you saved a pdf of your completed tax return, the worksheets will show the W-2 information you entered, but not the actual W-2.   You can get a wage and income transcript from the IRS:  It will not show the actual W-2, 1099’s, etc, but will show the income information the IRS received.  It will not, however, show your state information. It will only show the federal information. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript   Or you can pay the IRS $30 for an actual copy of your tax return which will include copies of your W-2’s      https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506.pdf      https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-forms/get-copy-w-2/L8FTim9MO_US_en_US?uid=m68ee4os    

Thank you, @Hal_Al  This is very helpful. A few questions.  – I get the $400 calculation taxed at the parents’ rate. So, to confirm, if this is the “lower number,” our dependent will not owe any tax (at their rate) on any portion of the $7,137 unearned income? –Re: the need (for the student) to file, in past exchanges you’ve said anyone with earned income > $400 needs to file. (Is this self-employment income only?) Beyond having total income > $15,750, my student needs to file to report taxable scholarships and 529 taxable earnings, right? (Taxed at their rate, not ours?) My student has 1099-NEC income, W-2 income, scholarship & 529 earnings, to be clear. (They will have paid estimated SE tax by the time they file 1040.)   Thanks for helping us understand how this works! 

Are you in Canada? This is the U.S. TurboTax public user forum. For help with Canadian taxes, please post your question in the Canada TurboTax user forum., at the following link. https://turbotax.community.intuit.ca/community/turbotax-support/help/03/en-cahttps://turbotax.intuit.ca/tax-software/index.jsp  

The reply saying that one has to be a "registered mortgage lender" is not necessarily correct.  Apparently the definition of a "registered mortgage lender" is not defined by the IRS, but by the SAFE act and state regulatory agencies.  Many of these agencies make an exception to the "registered mortgage lender" requirement for family loans.  So there is some debate on this issue.

You are correct.  A single $38,000 check from a joint account by one spouse does require filing Form 709 (with Part III gift-splitting consent if you want to treat it as $19,000 from each spouse). To avoid filing, each spouse would need to write their own separate check for $18,000 (or $19,000 each if you’re using the 2025 exclusion).