Why does my Italian wife need an ss or itin? She has never lived or worked in the US, we live in Germany. I'm American, declaring a small amount of freelance income.

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 4, 2019
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TurboTax Deluxe Online

Opus 17

Level 15

If you file as married filing jointly, you must treat her as a US resident for tax purposes and report and pay US tax in all her world-wide income.

If you file as married filing separately, you don’t need her tax number and you don’t include her income, but you can’t e-file. Print your return, write “NRA” in the space for her tax number (non-resident alien) and mail your return. You may need to use a fake SSN to bypass the error check. Try 999-88-9999 and then use some white-out to cover it on the printed return.

Filing by mail is also the only way to obtain the 2 month extension for overseas taxpayers unless you already requested the 6 month extension online.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/us-citizens-and-resident-aliens-abroad-automatic-2-month-extension-of-time-to-file