My husband had job outside of US, paid taxes there

[liuda62]

Job outside of US

[pk]

@liuda62 , you have to tell more  and what you are trying to do.  For starters we need to know

(a) is he a US person ( citizen/ GreenCard  etc. ) or what?  Are you a US person ?  If not citizen, then citizen of which country?

(b) where did he work; how long did he work/live there  --- when did he arrive there ( start of  tax home ) and is he still there?   Is he working for  himself ( self-employed ) or for a local entity or for  US govt ?

(c) Which country?  Did he pay taxes on the income?  Did you also live there and earn there ?

And are you trying to file jointly  or what ?

Please answer  so we can focus the answer  to your situation --yes ?

I will circle back once I hear from you 

[liuda62]

He is Green card holder since October 2023. He worked in Lithuania all 2023 and he paid taxes there.He lived there and earned there. I am green card holder and want to file jointly. Thank you.

[pk]

@liuda62 ,  are you saying  you husband is back in the USA ?

When did he enter the UJSA with GreenCard, when did he go to Lithuania and when did he get back ?

Or are you saying that he worked in Lithuania all of 2023 and entered the USA in 2024  with a GreenCard ?

I ask because  in one case he would have  a foreign tax home  and therefore can exclude his Foreign Earned Income from US taxes while in the other case, he has no income to declare for 2023.

So please tell me more

pk

[liuda62]

He entered the US in October 2023, get his green card and after one month came back to Lithuania.

[pk]

@liuda62  ok so your husband  was not a US person  ( citizen/GreenCard/Resident for Tax purposes) till  October of 2023.  Thus  his earnings till that date is not within the  tax purview of USA.  For your 2023  return  you file as a US person, Married Filing Joint and you report all income  from that date  ( world income ) till Dec. 31st of 2023.

Note that because it is  only a partial year of earnings  you will have to use itemized deduction rather than standard deduction;   

If you are both still abroad , then  you should consider asking for an extension to file by October 15th ( i.e. hopefully after  meeting the 12 months   abroad.

If that is the case then tell me so and I can walk you through.

On the other hand, if you are one or both back here in the USA, then  you need to file as per usual.

Please tell me more --- are you here  or abroad, is he here or abroad,  do you work ( here or abroad), do you have children, if he is back here , does he work here -- for 2024.   The more you tell me more specific I can be .

If you feel your answers are not of general interest , you can send me PM -- just no personally identifiable  info please.  And I will help.

[liuda62]

I am in the US and I am working here. He is still in Lithuania. Should I enter his foreign income since November to December 2023?

[pk]

@liuda62 , please accept my apologies for not being able to respond to you earlier .

There are two options  open to you, assuming that you want to file MFJ  ( Married Filing Joint )

(a)  you can file now  ( assuming that you are able to sign for your husband  ( usually for e-file you need  driver's license  or some other ID so that the system knows that he is  signing the return  or a power of attorney or something ).

                           1. in such a case you would include his world income for the period  after his GreenCard  based admission;

                           2.  you can choose to claim foreign tax credit ( for the taxes paid to  Lithuania ) for the income that is being taxed by both US and Lithuania -- using form 1116 --- ordinary income category.  Note that  because  1116 limits the allowable  foreign tax credit by a ratio of world Foreign Income  to  World income, you will get only a fraction of the credit  for the year 2023, the rest being carried forward  to be used in future years  ( hard to use up the credit because you must have  foreign income and foreign taxes in those forward years.

                            3.  you may have to amend the return if the final tax burden in Lithuania  changes for any reason.

This option  gives your refund pretty quickly but the risk is you lose  some foreign tax credit and possibility of having to file an amended return

OR

(b)  you ask for an extension, file your return in October ( or with another extension post that date ) so as to be able to use the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion by using a 12 month test period  of October xxx ( the day he was admitted to the USA as an immigrant on GreenCard ) and meeting the 330 days abroad over a 365 days  for the test period.  This will allow the foreign income to be excluded from US taxes.

Note that this option will delay the receipt of any refunds  due to you.

If you find this whole process  a bit complicated and/or hard to do, you can always use the services of a Tax Professional ( familiar with international taxes )

As I had mentioned earlier, once you decide which way to proceed ( that is best for you ), and you want to do it by yourself, one of us can definitely work with you  to file the return -- but it does mean you have to  tell us much more about the situation starting with the  incomes of each for the year 2023.   Use of PM is usually the best in such a case  because  many of the steps may not be of general interest -- but again no  PII  ( Personally Identifiable Information).

Please let me know what more I can do for you