My husband is in the process to get his visa and has not been in the us before. I filed married separately last year because somebody said we cannot apply jointly as my husband is a non resident and has never been here. Do I have to enter his international wage to my tax?
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It depends but if you want to file jointly, your nonresident alien spouse would need an SSN or an ITIN and you would need to include all his worldwide income (in USD) on your jointly filed US income tax return (see Option 1 below).
If you are a US citizen or resident alien and you are considered married as of the end of the calendar year, you will only be able to file as either married filing separately or jointly. (If you do not want your nonresident alien spouse included on your tax return, see option 2 below.)
Click here for more information about Claiming Non-Citizen Spouse and Children On Your Taxes.
To include your nonresident alien (NRA) spouse on your tax return, if your NRA spouse does not have a Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), you will need to apply for one. To apply for an ITIN, you would use Form W-7 and would need to attached your tax return to this form (see below). Please note, you will not qualify for the Earned Income Credit (EIC) without a valid Social Security number (not an ITIN) for yourself, your spouse (if filing jointly), and any qualifying children.
You have 3 main options for filing your income tax return:
Additionally, if you file as married filing jointly and your NRA spouse lives outside the US and meets the Bona Fide Residence Test or the Physical Presence Test, your NRA spouse might be able to claim an IRS - Foreign Earned Income Exclusion that would exclude a portion of your NRA spouse's foreign source earned income (up to $101,300 for 2016). TurboTax will guide you on taking the foreign earned income exclusion when you enter your NRA spouse's foreign source income under Federal Taxes> Wages and Income>I'll choose what I work on (or jump to full list)> Less Common Income (show more)> Foreign Earned Income and Exclusion.
The Internal Revenue Service has no official exchange rate. The IRS will normally accept any posted exchange rate that is used consistently. You can translate the foreign currency to U.S. dollars using the yearly average currency exchange rate for the tax year. In general, use the exchange rate prevailing (i.e., the spot rate) when you receive, pay or accrue the item.
Please refer to the following IRS links for more information about Foreign Currency and Currency Exchange Rates and Yearly Average Currency Exchange Rates
Please note : If you have foreign bank accounts, you may be required to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) if are a US citizen or resident and:
To be directed to the US Treasury Government Website to prepare a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, click FBAR (TurboTax does not support this form)
Here are some additional steps for filing married filing jointly if spouse needs an ITIN.
It depends but if you want to file jointly, your nonresident alien spouse would need an SSN or an ITIN and you would need to include all his worldwide income (in USD) on your jointly filed US income tax return (see Option 1 below).
If you are a US citizen or resident alien and you are considered married as of the end of the calendar year, you will only be able to file as either married filing separately or jointly. (If you do not want your nonresident alien spouse included on your tax return, see option 2 below.)
Click here for more information about Claiming Non-Citizen Spouse and Children On Your Taxes.
To include your nonresident alien (NRA) spouse on your tax return, if your NRA spouse does not have a Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), you will need to apply for one. To apply for an ITIN, you would use Form W-7 and would need to attached your tax return to this form (see below). Please note, you will not qualify for the Earned Income Credit (EIC) without a valid Social Security number (not an ITIN) for yourself, your spouse (if filing jointly), and any qualifying children.
You have 3 main options for filing your income tax return:
Additionally, if you file as married filing jointly and your NRA spouse lives outside the US and meets the Bona Fide Residence Test or the Physical Presence Test, your NRA spouse might be able to claim an IRS - Foreign Earned Income Exclusion that would exclude a portion of your NRA spouse's foreign source earned income (up to $101,300 for 2016). TurboTax will guide you on taking the foreign earned income exclusion when you enter your NRA spouse's foreign source income under Federal Taxes> Wages and Income>I'll choose what I work on (or jump to full list)> Less Common Income (show more)> Foreign Earned Income and Exclusion.
The Internal Revenue Service has no official exchange rate. The IRS will normally accept any posted exchange rate that is used consistently. You can translate the foreign currency to U.S. dollars using the yearly average currency exchange rate for the tax year. In general, use the exchange rate prevailing (i.e., the spot rate) when you receive, pay or accrue the item.
Please refer to the following IRS links for more information about Foreign Currency and Currency Exchange Rates and Yearly Average Currency Exchange Rates
Please note : If you have foreign bank accounts, you may be required to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) if are a US citizen or resident and:
To be directed to the US Treasury Government Website to prepare a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, click FBAR (TurboTax does not support this form)
Here are some additional steps for filing married filing jointly if spouse needs an ITIN.
I live in the USA, with USA Income. My spouse has never been to USA and is not a US resident, she has Canadian income. But we will be filing joint return per https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-spouse.
Per the IRS non-resident spouse election, it does state, "Generally, neither you nor your spouse can claim tax treaty benefits as a resident of a foreign country for a tax year for which the choice is in effect. However, the exception to the saving clause of a tax treaty might allow a tax treaty benefit on certain specified income."
Can we claim a credit against the tax that she paid, using form 1116?
Or should we be doing an exclusion per form 2555?
It seems from the instructions on form 2555, they do have lots of mentions for non-resident spouse and possibly easier application?
I do get a better tax treatment using form 1116, so asking.
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