My wife and I moved to the US in late April. I am a US citizen and she is not. She entered the US on a tourist visa. USCIS received her adjustment of status application to become a resident in November 2024 . In December 2024, they issued her a work permit, but not residency yet. From April 2024 - October 2024, she continued to run her UK business online while being on her tourist visa in the US. This is technically not legal, but is forgiven by USCIS if it is mentioned in the application, which it was. All of her income was in British Pounds and deposited into her UK accounts. We are filing US taxes jointly. Does she need to file this foreign income? Thank you for any guidance you can provide?
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Yes. If your spouse chooses to be treated as an US Citizen for tax purposes, and you want to file as Married Filing Joint, you would need to include their income from ALL sources worldwide on your return as well and they would be taxed on it. If you choose filing jointly, if she does not yet have an ITIN, you will need to print and mail your return along with the W-7 and any other required documents to
IRS
ITIN Operation
P.O. Box 149342
Austin, TX 78714-9342
Married filing jointly versus separately
Claiming a Non-Citizen Spouse and Children on Your Taxes
Thank you for your quick and detailed response! Does she need to include her income from January - March when she was not yet in the US?
Yes. If she is filing a joint return with you as a spouse, basically filing as a US Resident, then she would be treated as a resident for the full year, not just part of the year.
You cannot file a joint return with her being treated as a US Resident for only part of the year.
Ok, if I chose to not file jointly with her, would she still need to file on her own?
Yes. If she is earning income WHILE in the US, and you do not file a joint return, she would need to file a 1040NR to report the income that she earned while living here. Since she is working online based out of the US, this would be considered US sourced income. In this case, she would only report the income while actually in the US that she earned, not the income while living in her home country.
TurboTax does not support the 1040NR, but our partner Sprintax.com does.
The biggest difference in filing jointly or separately will be her counting her income while she was not here versus counting all her income for the entire year.
Also, something to consider is that if you file separately, there are some credits you are no eligible for so it is possible that your tax liability will be higher. You can do a return with and without her (BUT DO NOT FILE BOTH) to see what position it puts you in.
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