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New Member
posted Jul 28, 2024 10:45:55 PM

Living outside US as an expat and a housewife so zero income. My spouse is a non-resident alien so what to enter under his SSN/ITIN, he has none! how do i file my taxes?

I am  US citizen but living as an expat. how do i file?

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3 Replies
Level 15
Jul 29, 2024 5:49:51 AM

You file your tax return as you normally would whether located in or outside the US.

 

If you are a US citizen or US resident and your spouse does not have a Social Security number or an ITIN and you are not applying for an ITIN with the tax return then you can only file your tax return as Married Filing Separately.  Where asked to enter the spouse's Social Security number enter 999-88-9999.  You can only print and mail your tax return, it cannot be e-filed.  When you print the tax return erase the Social Security number for your spouse and manually enter NRA for non-resident alien.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for the procedure to print and mail a tax return using the online editions - https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1944348-how-do-i-print-and-mail-my-return-in-turbotax-online

Level 15
Jul 29, 2024 6:34:48 AM

However, if you receive no income of any kind, US or Foreign, then you are not required to file a tax return.

Level 15
Jul 29, 2024 10:21:25 AM

If you have no income, why are you filing a return?

 

If you choose to file a return, you have two options.

1. File as married filing separately.  Ignore your spouse's income.  Print your return, and write "NRA" in the space in the "Filing status" box where it asks for their name.  File your return by mail.  (If you need an SSN to get Turbotax to print, use 999-88-9999 and then cover it with white-out after you print.)

 

2. You can make an election to treat your spouse as a US person for tax purposes, and file a joint return as married filing jointly.  However, this would require you to declare and pay US tax on your spouse's income, so this is probably not the choice you want to make.  If you do want to make the election and file jointly, we can give you more detailed instructions on how to get an ITIN and so on.