Generally, you cannot file Single. You can only file either Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately. You can only file single if you both are nonresidents and meet certain exceptions. See https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040nr.pdf ( page 17 under Single / Exception)
Since your spouse is a nonresident, to file jointly, you would need to make an election to claim her as a resident. TurboTax does not provide any tools or forms to assist you to make the election, unfortunately. You would need to follow IRS's instructions to attach the statement to your 2020 tax return. You cannot e-file. Instead, print out all your tax forms along with the statement and paper-file. Click here to see Nonresident to resident
You have an option to file between Jointly or Separately. Generally, married filing jointly does give you more benefit to maximize your total refund. To see the pros and cons between the two filing statuses, click here: Jointly vs Separately.
Yes, if you filed MFJ, you have to report both of your worldwide income including those earned in India. If your spouse paid taxes to India in 2020, she can claim a foreign tax credit by filing a Form 1116 on your joint tax return.
Here are the steps:
- Open up your TurboTax account and select Pick up where you left off
- At the right upper corner, in the search box, type in "foreign tax credit" and Enter
- Select Jump to foreign tax credit
- Follow prompts
If you have paid taxes to both foreign and the US tax authorities, the IRS allows you to claim a foreign tax credit on your US tax return. To claim this foreign tax credit, you would need to file a Form 1116.
