Amendment to past returns

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
July 20, 2020
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I recently married a foreign national in August 2018 and was under the impression that I was unable to claim her as a dependent for the last two tax years due to not being able to find a clear answer that she qualified for a Tax ID or social Social Security until she moved here (She has since moved here in the last couple of months).

Anyways I was recently talking to the Immigration lawyer that I hired to take care of my wifes Immigration case and the topic came up he was surprised I haven't done so since we were married for a while now and said it was absolutely possible to claim her as a dependent and that I just need to show proof of our marriage (Marriage Cert) and that we filled a case with USCIS for her to immigrate here back in 2018.

Is this true? and if so how do I even start this?

Opus 17

Level 15

How exactly did you file your 2018 and 2019 returns?

Where did/does your spouse live?

Does your spouse have income from US sources?

You can never claim a spouse as a dependent. However, you may be able to file a joint return, which has lower tax rates than married filing separately. But there are some trade-offs to consider. If you filed as single, you definitely must amend your returns to file either as married filing separately or married jointly.