In married filing separate, must I report my husband's capital gains and/or interest income if he's not US citizen and doesn't file US taxes? We both live abroad.

[bluemli67]

In the past 30 years I have not filed US taxes, because I never made the minimum income threshold for married filing separate category. This year the minimum income is 5 dollars! I have royalty income from a book that amounts to less that 20 dollars. Otherwise, I don't have any other income. My husband's accounts are all strictly in his name only. I have signature to his current and savings accounts.

[ChrystalM · Accepted solution]

In general, if you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien married to a nonresident alien, you are considered “Married Filing Separately” unless you qualify for a different filing status. You do not have to include your husbands income with your income. You do need to file this year because you made more than the minimum income required to file. 

In addition to the tax return, if you were the owner of a Foreign account (or had signing power on a Foreign account) that had more than $10,000 at any point in time in the year, you are required to file an FBAR.  If that was the case, or even if it is very close, filing the FBAR will be a protection for you.

You can't file the FinCEN 114 through TurboTax (there is a separate website which exclusively handles this),  but you do need to answer the Foreign Accounts questions accurately and TurboTax can direct you to the site to file the FBAR if you need it.