Married a non US person, how should i file my taxes

[gkapoor26]

Hi,

I have 2 questions:

Question 1:

I got married in December 2025 to a non-US person. He works and lives in India, hence has no SSN or ITIN here.
When i try to file my taxes through turbo tax, as married but filing separately it gives missing SSN/ITIN error (even though the field is optional) .
I ignored the error and continued filing rest of the details. I have 80k capital loss carry over from previous years and I was able to claim $3000 last year, but now it only allows me to claim $1500, when filing as "married but filing separately". Is there a way around this?  Should I file my taxes as single, since my spouse is not here and wont be for foreseeable future.

Question 2:

I have some capital gains this years, can I claim more than 3000/1500 capital loss carryover to offset the gain?

Thanks,

Gauri

[RobertB4444]

You should file as 'Married Filing Separately' OR (if you have another person living with you) 'Head of Household'.  You can't file as single because you're not single.

You can file as 'Married Filing Jointly' and include all of your spouse's foreign income and taxes paid on your return.  That may entitle you to a bigger deduction.  The US government would like me to take this moment to tell you that doing that does not change your spouse's immigration status, just your taxable income.

When you file and list your spouse in TurboTax you will enter "NRA" (for non-resident alien) in the space for their social security number.  Once you do this you will not be able to electronically file your tax return, you will have to print and mail it in.  

[gkapoor26]

Thank you for the reply.
I will prefer to file as "married but filing separately" , in that case also I will have to mail in my return? both federal and state? 
Also, can you please clarify about the capital loss carry over part please.

Thanks again!

[DaveF1006 · Accepted solution]

Yes, you will need to print and mail your return since your Spouse doesn't have a Social Security Number or ITIN. Since you are filing Married Filing Separately, you are only allowed a loss carryover of $1500. It is mentioned in this IRS Publication.

Yes, you can use your carryover to offset 100% of your capital gains. The $1,500 (MFS) or $3,000 (Single/MFJ) limit only applies to using capital losses to reduce ordinary income (like your salary). When it comes to offsetting capital gains, there is no limit  TurboTax will recognize this fact in your return and will apply these automatically.