Married separate J-1 Visa holders tax return

[eminemuleyke]

My husband and I are on separate Research Scholar J-1 visas since November 2015. I have been paid by my institution since that time and he has been paid by his institution since May 2016.
Last year we received W-2 form only for me and filed it through TurboTax Married Joint Filing and got both federal and state return.
This year we both got our W-2 forms from our institutions. Should we file them together with Married Joint filing?
I remember when I was first filling-out my paperwork on November 2015, administration told me to choose the Marital Status as Single instead of Married because of tax topics. My husband also had the same experience with his institution.

[bine22 · Accepted solution]

On J1 as a research scholar you are non-resident aliens for 2 calendar years, so 2015 and 2016. As a nonresident alien you would need to file form 1040NR plus form 8843 as married filing separately, nonresident aliens cannot file joint returns (with very few exceptions). Turbotax does not provide these forms.

Since you filed the wrong return, you will also need to amend your return for 2015. You will need to fill out the correct return and add form 1040X to it. Also add an explanation of your error to it (as it is usually not possible to amend from filing jointly to separately).

First do the amendment and then file a correct return for 2016. Also, the institutions are wrong in their advice to file single, that is not an option when you are married. May I ask which institution that is? (I was a postdoc at Harvard and they did a lot of mistakes with aliens).

There might also be a tax treaty with your country of origin that you might be able to claim. Where are you both from?

Have a look at publication 519 and feel free to ask follow up questions.

[eminemuleyke]

Thank you for the prompt answer.

We are both from Turkey. I am working at Cleveland Clinic and my husband works at Case Western Reserve University. Both of these institutions asked for us to choose Single as the marital status since we are on separate J-1 visas so we thought they were not mistaken.

Do you have any website or program advice to complete all this paperwork?

And also should we wait for an answer from IRS after we send the amendment to complete the 2016 tax return?

Thanks

[bine22]

Maybe they ask you to fill out the W4 as single? That would be fine, as that only affects the tax withholding. But filing the return itself as single is wrong. Have a look at publication 519 <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/publications/p519/">https://www.irs.gov/publications/p519/</a>
for details on how to file. You can download all required forms from the internet. Also, some universities provide access to tax preparation software for their students and postdocs via Glacier. You should ask at the international office or student office. I looked at the treaty with Turkey and it seems, that your income would only be exempt, if it was paid from outside the US. The treaty (article 20 would be relevant) can be found here: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/turkey.pdf">https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/turkey.pdf</a>