J1 scholar would like to include J2 dependents, but they don´t have SSN. What do I need to do?

[garavillalba]

I was in the US for two years with a J1 visa as visiting scholar, and for 2017 I am considered a resident for US taxes. I have two children with J2's that I would like to claim. However, they do not have SSN's. We are now back in Europe, so getting an ITIN does not seem possible. I have seen a Q&A regarding this issue, that is applicable to my situation:

I was in the US as a J1 and so was my spouse on a J2. She didnt have a SSN or ITIN. If I file as single I have to pay, what do I do?

 [IF you are ] classified as a US resident alien, then with your J-1 visa status and a spouse with a J-2 visa and no Social Security Number or ITIN, you have to paper-file, by mail, a US Form 1040 tax return as Married Filing Separately, listing just your own income, and then manually writing in with a pen the words "None" or "Not Applicable" where you are asked to give the US tax ID number for your spouse.  This is difficult but can be done in TurboTax.  

I believe it is exactly my situation, except the J2s are children, not spouse. Could you please explain what I should do? I would like to learn how to do this on TurboTax if possible, so I can simulate my taxes. Can you please give me instructions so I can do a simulation of my 2017 taxes? I am not sure how much is deducted for each J2. Is it possible to do a 2017 simulation at this time? or do I have to do it as if it were 2016? I could not see on your website how to switch to 2017. Also, my source of income came from Europe, should I convert from euros to US dollars taking a yearly average for that year?

Thank you!!

[pk]

when did you leave the USA?

[garavillalba]

Hi! I just edited my question to give more detail... I left the US in August of this year.

[bine22 · Accepted solution]

There are several issues here.

If you are married, filing single is never an option.

I am assuming 2017 was your third year in the US. In that case you would indeed meet the substantial presence test and be a resident alien. And I am assuming your spouse is a resident alien too.

As resident aliens, you and your spouse are required to report worldwide income  for the ENTIRE year, including income earned after you left the US.

If you file as resident alien, your best option would be to file jointly, but you would need to apply for an ITIN for your spouse.

You both can apply for an early residency termination date (if your spouse had no income the entire year, she would not need to do that). That would make you a dual satus alien. You would then file a dual status return as married filing separately. Turbotax does not support dual status returns.

You can claim your children on either the resident alien return or the dual status return, but you would have to apply for ITINs for your children. No way around it.

You can simulate your return by entering "dummy" ITINs for anyone without an ITIN/SSN. ITINS start with a 9, so for example, use 99-999-9999 for one, 99-999-9998 for the other child. The 2017 software isn't available yet.

And yes, you would have to convert income not in USD to USD, either using the exchange rate of the dates you received the income or a yearly average (the IRS publishes yearly average rates for the previous year each year).

[garavillalba]

Thank you so much for the rapid and helpful response. I think I am all set with my kids situation now, but I am afraid my situation with my husband (the J2 holder) is a bit trickier.  Our J visas were good until Sept 6th 2017, but he returned to Europe sooner (in June), and will be filing taxes in Spain for 2017- not the US. Is that possible? does the IRS count the date on the visa to establish substantial presence? or will I be required to show proof that he left earlier? For tax purposes, it makes a lot more sense that he files in Spain and not in the US.
I just did a simulation with TurboTax. I chose "married filing separately", specified that we only lived together until June 2016, used a dummy SSN, and was able to complete the whole process OK. However, when I do it for real, will I have to enter an ITIN for him? or can I do as the previous answer suggested,  "manually writing in with a pen the words "None" or "Not Applicable" where you are asked to give the US tax ID number for your spouse"? (if so please give instruction on how to do it in turboTax if possible) or do I have to get him an ITIN even if we are not filing jointly and he is not filing in the US?
Thanks so much for all your help, I really appreciate it.

[bine22]

Since he left in June, he would not meet the substantial presence test and not be a resident alien. So he would not have o file a US tax return, if he had no income, or, if he had income until he left, file a 1040NR as married filing separately. So you can file as married filing separately as resident alien or as dual status alien, if you do not want to report income after you left the US. Since your spouse is a nonresident alien, you would write NRA in the filed for his ITIN/SSN. You cant do that in Turbotax, you would need to print the return and write that in by hand and file by regular mail.