MFJ with Non-Resident Spouse and Foreign Self Employement Income

vidis12 — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 01:57:45 GMT

First year filling MFJ with statement to treat non-resident spouse as resident for US tax purposes. Question remains does spouse's self employment income who is UK national (lived all year there) is recorded on schedule C or under other income section like household wages not on W2 or other income and then claiming foreign earned income exclusion?

I also realize regardless of how we report spouses foreign income we'll need to attach certificate of coverage to make sure self employment tax is zero for US since it is paid in UK.

Re: MFJ with Non-Resident Spouse and Foreign Self Employement Income

DaveF1006 — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 18:18:11 GMT

Yes, since you have made the election to treat your non-resident spouse as a resident for tax purposes, you are now required to report their worldwide income on your joint Form 1040. Because your spouse is self-employed, this income must be reported on Schedule C, as if they were a U.S. resident business owner.

After you report the Schedule C, you can exclude her income claiming the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. Since your spouse lived in the UK all year, he or she should easily pass the Bona Fide Residence Test.

To exclude the SE tax from your return, it is accomplished by:

If you are working in Turbo Tax Online, there will be an interview question asking How much of your XXXwork took place within the United States? Here you will record the amount of gross income and expenses outside of the US. Should be the entire amount of her gross profit and expenses. This should reduce the SE tax to Zero.
If you are working in the desktop version, the wording says "let's check for some uncommon situations. Select the first check box that states The business income of XXX needs to be adjusted.

You do not need to "attach" the physical certificate to your e-filed return. You keep it in your records to provide to the IRS if they send you a notice asking why no SE tax was paid on that Schedule C profit.

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MFJ with Non-Resident Spouse and Foreign Self Employement Income

Re: MFJ with Non-Resident Spouse and Foreign Self Employement Income