Filing a joint tax with my nonresident/noncitizen spouse who has W-2

[Zalez-14]

Hello - I'm filing a joint 1040 tax return with my spouse who is a nonresident/noncitizen. My spouse received a W-2 from the employer, but does not have a SSN (my spouse has an ITIN). I saw that it was still possible to file jointly, but that I needed to mail in the return with a statement indicating that my spouse is a nonresident/noncitizen but for purposes of tax return only can be treated as a resident.

(1) Is this correct?

(2) We mailed in our tax return and forgot to include a statement. Can we still send/add a statement if it's needed?

Thank you.

[Anonymous_]

@pk?

[pk]

@Zalez-14 ,  I am very confused by your post.

(a) Even if I assume that you are yourself an US person  ( citizen/ GreenCard / Resident for Tax purposes ), and your spouse an NRA  ( No-Resident Alien ) with an ITIN, how is she working  because  generally ITIN are issued ONLY for tax-filing purposes

(b) W-2 are issued  ONLY to persons with SSN

(c) Certainly a person does not need SSN to be a business owner

 The  file by mail and send a note along is generally valid  for cases where  a GreenCard holder or a citizen is married to an NRA and wants to file jointly  to have the NRA treated as a Resident.

Please could you provide some explanation so we can understand the situation and guide you accordingly.

I will circle back once I hear from you 

pk

[TomD8]

@Zalez-14 --

This TurboTax help article details the correct procedure for filing a joint return with a non-resident alien spouse:

How should I file my taxes if my spouse is a nonresident alien? (intuit.com)

[leafstar]

ITINs are used by many people in the US to file taxes when they have no immigration status but are working. There definitely are companies that issue W2s to people without SSNs (even though they shouldn't). They fill the SSN box in as "applied for." It is stupid, but it still happens.