My foreign national without SSN and I live in Brazil under the Foreign Service. How do I file?

[mariajcs]

Hello,

I recently married a Spanish citizen who lives with me in Brazil while I serve as a Foreign Service Officer.  I felt "boxed in" when filing taxes because when I tried to mark my husband as my dependent, I was required to provide a SSN for him.  However, he doesn't have a U.S. income because he teleworks for a Spanish company while we are in Brazil so all his tax information is in Spain.  I *had* to file as single, otherwise, the form was deemed incomplete and ineligible to submit.  What should I do the next tax cycle?

[vithalanin]

I am assuming that you are a US Citizen/Green Card Holder. You can file married filing jointly, but then you would declare your income as well as his income. In order to file jointly, he will need to get an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). You would file a Form W7 and its supporting documents to get him this number. This return will be paper filed the year you apply for his ITIN. You maybe able to apply for this through the local US Embassy. The application goes with the tax return. Here are the Instructions for Form W7. 

[Mike9241]

a spouse can never be claimed as a dependent. assuming that you are a US Citizen/Green Card Holder if you were married on 12/31/2024 you misfiled because without him having an ITIN the only valid filing status was married filing separately.

[mariajcs]

Spouses of diplomats can be filed as dependents when abroad.  

Submitting married and filing separately still required a SSN or ITIN which he didn't have at the time. 

[DoninGA]

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@mariajcs wrote:

Spouses of diplomats can be filed as dependents when abroad.  

Submitting married and filing separately still required a SSN or ITIN which he didn't have at the time. 

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No, Not for tax purposes on a a US tax return, a spouse can never be a dependent.

If you are a US citizen or US resident and your spouse does not have a Social Security number or an ITIN and you are not applying for an ITIN with the tax return then you can only file your tax return as Married Filing Separately.  Where asked to enter the spouse's Social Security number enter 999-88-9999.  You can only print and mail your tax return, it cannot be e-filed.  When you print the tax return erase the Social Security number for your spouse and manually enter NRA for non-resident alien.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for the procedure to print and mail a tax return using the online editions - https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/printers-printing/print-mail-return-turb...

If you decide to file your tax return as Married Filing Jointly you must apply for an ITIN with the tax return and you would need to be providing a statement with your tax return that you want your Nonresident Alien Spouse Treated as a Resident.  See IRS Publication 54 Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad page 9  - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf

Go to this IRS website for ITIN information - https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/general-itin-information