2022 I am a resident alien(H1B) and my wife is on H4. She will be on F1 later at end of next year which is around November 2023

[nikeshv]

2022 I am a resident alien(H1B) and my wife is on H4. She will be on F1 later at end of next year which is around November 2023. I am paying for her tuition fee and I have the following question.

• For the upcoming tax return year can I raise as jointly and do I need an ITIN number for my wife
• In my W4 form I have chosen single, shall I leave it as it is or choose as the head of household as I am the only person earning right now(no children) or choose as "married filing jointly" though my wife is not earing right now.
• When my wife changes the status to F1 and gets a job that will lead her to SSN do I have to cancel the ITIN number if she acquires one?

[tagteam]

@pk?

[pk · Accepted solution]

@nikeshv ,  As  I understand the situation here :

(a) you are H1-B and having met the Substantial Presence Test are considered  Resident  for Tax Purposes.  Taxed by the US on your world income.

(b) your wife is on dependent visa H-4 and thus also considered  a Resident for Tax purposes.

At this stage , you have only two valid  filing status --- 1.  Married Filing Joint ( MFJ)  or  2. Married Filing Separate ( MFS).  Head of Household  status (HoH) requires  the presence and support of a qualified child / person AND unmarried or considered unmarried          ( living away from spouse for at least the second of half of a tax year ).  MFJ is generally the most tax benign fling status for most filers.

If your spouse goes to school, and she changes to F-1  ( independent & student visa ), depending on facts and circumstances at the time she may or may not get exemption from counting  presence because she has already been a resident for tax purposes.  Her ITIN may be replaced by SSN but F-1 status  is not a work visa  ( although  one does get special permission to work on campus or during OPT/CPT but still must be "full time student" ).  Thus I don't see any changes to your filing status.  Don't know if I understand what you are trying to achieve.   Can you please tell more 

Namaste ji

pk

@tagteam 

[nikeshv]

Hi @pk 

Bang on!! you did get most of it right. I understood that I should be going with MFJ for the next year tax filling. Currently my wife is enrolled to a college and her visa status is H4 because of COVID and for other reasons the processing time to change from H4 to F1 is around 9 months so by that time we would be in next year applying for returns. When I apply for returns next year do I need get an ITIN number for my wife 

2) After the status changes if my lands a job on campus or through OPT/CPT then do I have to can the ITIN and request a SSN? 

[pk]

@nikeshv , even if your wife is on H-4 ( a non-work visa) she is still eligible for ITIN ( from the IRS) -- this will allow you to file as  MFJ.

Once she is in school , she may be eligible for SSN and in which case here ITIN will die  and you use that to file MFJ.

Note that even during the first year ( say you pass the  Substantial Presence Test in beg of 2022 ) if your wife is present in the USA ( even with H-4), you can file your return  along with her as MFJ, fill out and attach the request for ITIN ( W-7 ) and all the relevant  docs, and file by mail, IRS will indeed grant her an ITIN retrospectively for the year 2022.  The IRS being somewhat understaffed, will take a while to process the paper-return  and the W-7 but you will get the number ( which is good only for return filing).

Does that answer your query ?

Namaste ji

pk

[nikeshv]

@pk  Thanks for explaining it in detail, yes it does answer my query.