How to treat my non-resident spouse as resident and file jointly ?

[racoonking]

I am a U.S citizen and my spouse is non-resident (F1 since Oct 2014, now working with EAD) and has SSN. We married on Aug 2018, and we would like to file jointly for the first time. Only my spouse has income, I am a full-time student.

We have three questions :

1. When filing jointly, does the order of the name in "Your First Name" and "If Joint Return, Spouse's First Name" in populated 1040 form matter ? (see file attached) 
   
2. Do we have to file physically by mail in order to attach the statement for making the election to treat non-resident as a resident of the United States under IRC § 6013(g)? Is there a form that we have to fill or any specific format that we have to follow ? 
3. We don't have global income, but have global assets (over $10,000 less than $100,000). How do we file FBAR?  Can we e-file FBAR separately with this website https://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/NoRegFBARFiler.html
   

[KarenJ]

1) No the order of the names do not matter however, I would keep them the same year to year.  The IRS gets confused if you change the order of the names.

2) Yes, you need to make the an election on a piece of  paper to treat your nonresident spouse as a resident and file by mail. You cannot e-file.  For your situation the election is a 6013h election.  6013g election is usually for when the spouse is outside the country at the end of the year.

Please see pages 8 or 9 Publication 519 for what needs to be included in your statement.  No form or special format is needed.  Just be sure to sign the election.

3) Yes, you can file the FBAR separately.  To file jointly, your foreign accounts would have to be held jointly.

You may have an additional filing requirement.  Please see the attached for information regarding the Form 8938.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/comparison-of-form-8938-and-fbar-requirements

[racoonking]

Thanks for your reply. We have one more question:
For form 8938, if our foreign asset is less than $100,000, we don't have to attach the form in our income tax return. Is that correct ?

[KarenJ]

Also that your foreign assets  were not more than $150,000 at any time during the year.  If you do not meet either condition, you do not have to file form 8938.

[racoonking]

Thanks for your reply. Do we also have to attach the statement for non-resident spouse for California state tax return ?

[KarenJ]

No, it is not needed for your CA return.