Good day, TurboTax Community. While https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/marriage/should-you-and-your-spouse-file-taxes-jointly-or-separ... provides commendable insight to the pros/cons of a married couple Filing Jointly vs Separately, receiving no intelligible guidance during a phone call with the IRS, I am hopeful a viewing tax expert may advise which status is most appropriate for my current - and future - married realities:
In February 2024, I married a foreign national. My spouse does not reside in the U.S. and will not be granted a long-term visa for at least two years. Understandably, all income earned by my spouse during 2024 and 2025 originates from outside the U.S. (FYI: My spouse's income is informal - a monthly stipend as a family caretaker - that is not reported in her native country.) My spouse's income does not meet the Filing Threshold for any U.S. Filing Status. My spouse does not have a SSN or ITIN...and will likely never qualify for either after moving to the U.S. due to (1) not working outside the home or (2) informally earning very low individual income annually.
In mid-2026, we are optimistic that my spouse will be granted a long-term visa to reside with me in the U.S. Each year in the U.S., my spouse will continue not meeting the Filing Threshold for any U.S. Filing Status.
Questions:
1. Which Filing Status should I/we employ in 2024 (and 2025) while my spouse does not reside in the U.S., employed informally in her native country, and does not earn sufficient income to meet the Filing Threshold for any U.S. Filing Status?
2. When my spouse is approved to reside in the U.S., but continues not earning sufficient individual income meeting the Filing Threshold for any U.S. Filing Status, which Filing Status should I/we use in 2026 and beyond?
Thank you for your interest and guidance.
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First, congratulations.
Second, what country?
Third, the answer below is generally true, but might be modified if there is a tax treaty with your specific country. @pk will be the best person to answer that.
The general rule is that if you file separately, you only report your own income and deductions. You usually can't e-file because your spouse doesn't have a tax ID number.
If you file jointly, you must make an election to treat your non-resident alien spouse as a US resident for tax purposes. When you do this, you are required to list all your spouse's income and deduction on your tax return with your own income. This subjects your spouse's income to US taxation, but you can claim a credit or deduction if she also pays tax in her home country. Filing jointly usually results in lower US tax because it has a lower tax rates, and some deductions and credits are limited or disallowed when filing separately. However, the financial impact of filing jointly or separately in your situation can only be determined by you, by testing both scenarios. IRS info here.
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-spouse
If you want to file jointly, you will need to apply for an ITIN for your spouse. You can't e-file your tax return. Instead, print and sign the tax return, and also complete a sign a form W-7 ITIN application. Mail the tax return, the W-7, and any required identity documents to the IRS address for ITINs, not the address for tax returns. After the IRS issues the ITIN they will process your return. Your wife will not be granted an ITIN unless she has a financial connection to the US -- since she does not have a US job or own property, her connection is established by filing a joint return, so she will generally be ineligible for an ITIN if you try to apply before filing the tax return.
Also note that when she applies for citizenship or a green card, there will be a question, "have you ever failed to pay income tax that you owed." She doesn't owe tax if you file separately, unless she somehow has US-source income, but she would owe tax if you filed jointly, so be sure to include her income on a joint return even though she doesn't get a US W-2 or 1099.
This TurboTax help article details your filing options when your spouse is a non-resident alien:
How should I file my taxes if my spouse is a nonresident alien? (intuit.com)
@please_help , Having gone through your post ( description of the situation ), and agreeing with the responses from my colleagues @Opus 17 and @TomD8 , there are few things I would like to add:
(a) You have not answered as to your own immigration status ( citizen/ GreenCard/ Resident for Tax purposes ); if you are US citizen, then which country are you a citizen of --- this is only for completeness and may have no effect on tax situation
(b) Your spouse , where is she from ? Has she ever been to the USA and if so when. This may affect things because of tax treaty ( if any )
(c) Generally, if the NRA spouse is not in the USA and your tax home is US, then the "treating of spouse as a resident " is not much benefit, especially if there is no tax treaty in effect ( because then you cannot get credit for the foreign taxes paid nor be eligible for Foreign Earned Income Exclusion ).
(d) Note that when filing a US tax return jointly with your spouse , it is total household income that is considered for threshold of filing requirement.
Please answer the questions and I will circle back once I hear from you --yes ?
pk
Greetings, TurboTax Community. I appreciate your feedback, Opus 17, TomD8, and pk!
I am an American citizen. I return to Manila in two weeks to conduct an in-person Catholic wedding ceremony to remove all reservations of my love for my foreign wife. This will be my second visit to the Philippines, my wife's homeland.
I remain undecided how to file - either "Married, Filing Separately" or "Married, Filing Jointly." While the former is the 'status quo' allowing for e-File, the latter slightly reduces my taxable income (I will remain at 12% in both scenarios). No matter which is chosen, the economic data will be nearly exclusively my own (my wife has worked as an undocumented live-in caretaker her entire life with no tax reporting requirements due to her income being egregiously low). When I die, as my beneficiary, my wife will then have cause to file a tax return in her name; if all that is needed to file is an ITIN, then perhaps now is the time to apply for her ITIN while accepting that I must mail all federal and state income tax returns from this point forward?
Does your wife intend to move to the US? Or remain in the Philippines.
Your wife is only eligible for an ITIN if she has a tax connection to the US. That tax connection could be created by filing a joint return with you, or by her having US-source income (income that is connected to working in the US). However, whether or not your pension would be US-source income is something I don't know. Are you talking about a pension, IRA withdrawals or something else? I do know that a foreign person who owns stock in US companies is not considered US-source income, so it's not clear to me whether, under US law, your wife would ever need a tax ID number if she never sets foot in the US, even if she inherits some assets from you. And of course, even if she does inherit and is required to file a US tax return, she could get a tax number at that time.
Also, if you file separately for 2024, you can decide to make the election to treat your wife as a US person and file jointly in a later year. (I think that once you make the election, it is very difficult to un-do. But you don't have to make the election immediately if you want to try filing MFS instead.)
Ultimately how you file is still a decision only you can make.
generally agreeing with the response of my colleague @Opus 17 to this most recent post, I have a few more questions on the situation :
(a) is you tax home US or Philippines ? I ask because you say this is your second visit , to the island nation, you don't say whether your spouse is in the USA or in the Philippines
(b) If she is living in the USA, the choice of using " un documented " implies that she would not be able to reenter the US after the on-site marriage in her home country..
(c) Do you have any children and if so where do they live, are they minors, etc. etc. ?
(d) Why the reference to her being the "sole" beneficiary when you pass ( in the long / distant future ) ?
(e) Is your longer-term plan to stay in the USA with her ?
I admit while some of the questions may seem a bit in the left field, I cannot honestly consider the benefits / cons of filing status choice without these points being considered. I also recognize that ultimately it is a choice that only you and your spouse can make, . all we can do is to point to items you should consider in your decision making.
I will circle back once I hear from you .
pk
Greetings, TurboTax Community. I appreciate your continued interest and questions, Opus 17 and pk.
I returned to the U.S. last week after performing the in-person Catholic wedding ceremony my wife dreamed about for all her life. She looked magnificent in her long flowing white dress. She plans to keep the dress forever; while impractical, I now have learned that anything and everything is viewed as a "memory" in Filipino culture - hence why they take a billion photos and selfies wherever they go.
During yesterday's video chat, my wife confirmed that she intends to become a U.S. citizen. Once USCIS grants her a visa, she will move wherever I am. However, Immigration is so far behind that no decision is expected before mid-2026 (visa applications submitted in March 2024 have yet to be acted upon). Until she receives a visa, she will remain in her native Philippines.
When I die, my wife will inherit my Roth 401k, Roth IRA, small life insurance and annuity policies, and possibly a survivor's benefit in addition to spouse's Social Security income. (Due to my chronic relocating for work, I have not purchased a house. If/when we do, she will be the sole owner after my passing.) No trust currently exists as we wait for the Philippine Statistics Authority to recognize our U.S. marriage so she can legally change her name. Due to her lack of income, my wife does not own foreign equities.
My tax home is the U.S. It is only when I reach retirement age that we may consider relocating permanently abroad. I have filed an annual U.S. tax return for 20+ years.
Please forgive me; my "undocumented live-in caretaker" reference relates to my wife working full-time as a domestic servant in the Philippines without any employment documentation submitted to the Philippines Bureau of Internal Revenue. My wife has been fully employed for 20+ years, but the Philippine government possesses no employment earnings record for her (this is common for low-skilled domestic laborers in the Philippines).
We do not have any children. This may change only after my wife is able to relocate with me in 2026 (or later).
When I pass, in the absence of children (either biological or adopted), my wife will be my only nuclear family member. Accordingly, she will inherit all that I have saved/prepared for her. Reading today that an "inheritance tax" is state-specific (https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/estates/what-are-inheritance-taxes/L93IUc3sC#GoTo-What-are-inhe...), it does not appear that she will be required to file a tax return when she assumes ownership of these assets. Since she will not work for a third-party after immigrating to the U.S., my wife may not need an ITIN or SSN until she takes distributions from these inherited accounts? (Again, I recognize the need for a revocable trust to bypass probate.)
Long-term, she and I are open to relocating anywhere in the world. Without children, I suspect that we could wind up spending our last years in the Philippines - or in an Eastern country - to be closer to her family. This depends on our financials, however: If I must work until my death to sustain a roof over our heads, food on the table, and clothes on our backs, we'll remain in the U.S. While I am a huge saver, no amount of savings can make up for a poor economy (i.e., high inflation) or market crash.
Given these details, it doesn't appear that assigning an ITIN for my wife is an urgent need and I can continue to e-File as "Married, Filing Separately" knowing that my wife has no cause to file until my passing. Does this seem accurate? (A SSN is still required for my wife to be added to a bank account and/or issued a credit card.)
To clarify, does your wife have a SSN currently?
@please_help , given your current long-term plans ( and unless something changes/evolves ), I would generally agree with you that you may not need an ITIN for her. However, if her plan is to become a US citizen ( directly through marriage or via being a GreenCard for five years ), she would be eligible for SSN. Personally ( and I recognize I am not in your shoes) I would make decisions on these tax matters based on longer term goals.
My best wishes for a very Happy Married Life ( I had 55 years with my wife till she passed due to incurable lung cancer ).
Is there more I can do for you ?
pk
Yes, keep in mind you may file married filing separately but if your wife does not have a SSN or ITIN, you won't be able to file electronically. Here is how to file.
Greetings, TurboTax Community. Once again, I appreciate your interest and questions, DaveF1006 and pk.
I do think the "long-term" perspective is the most efficient path in most constructs. As pointed out in the "Filing Basics" link within DaveF1006's second message, "A spouse who is Married Filing Separately is not required to provide the Social Security card for the other spouse, although the return cannot be e-filed without the spouse’s Social Security number." Therefore, if my wife is currently eligible for a SSN through our marriage, perhaps I will visit a Social Security Office 'now' to seek a SSN for my non-resident alien spouse. If the Social Security Office assigns a SSN to my wife, it still won't prevent my filing "Married Filing Separately" or "Married Filing Jointly" given my wife's lack of income. With an assigned SSN, would this permit me to resume e-filing annual tax returns (regardless of classification)?
Believing that I can change my filing status between "Married Filing Separately" and "Married Filing Jointly" from year to year, I will plan to test both options in the TurboTax software and file the classification that is most beneficial (though short of significant tax reform, no meaningful difference in outcome is foreseen between them).
If the course of action I state above is just and actionable, then, again, I appreciate your insight and advice on this sensitive topic, Opus 17, TomD8, DaveF1006, and pk.
Finally, belated congratulations to pk for a "very Happy Married Life" spanning "55 years"! My age will not allow my wife and I to attain such an enduring milestone; however, every moment we are together feels like I/we are in our youth. I will remain contented by each moment we share together for love transcends all time.
Yes, if your wife is assigned a SSN, you will be able to file electronically. Just a word of caution however, if you choose to file Married Filing Jointly in the first year and then decide to File Married Filing Separate in later years, "neither spouse can make this choice again in any later tax year, even if married to a different individual – it is a once-in-a-lifetime choice".
Please read the section Ending the Choice in this IRS publication. You are only allowed to make this switch once.
Thank you for sharing your expertise, DaveF1006.
While I may be wrong, I interpret "neither spouse can make this choice again in any later tax year, even if married to a different individual – it is a once-in-a-lifetime choice" as meaning that the choice "to treat the nonresident spouse as a U.S. resident for tax purposes" cannot be replicated after the presence of any scenario under the article's "Ending the Choice" paragraph. Earlier in the article reads the following:
"You must file a joint income tax return for the year you make the choice (but you and your spouse can file joint or separate returns in later years)."
After three hours on-hold with the SSA, my call was prematurely terminated by the national SSA agent without assistance. I then called the local SSA office. Since my wife does not have any immigration status in the USA, she is ineligible for a SSN. This, then, returns us back to the original question: To file as "Married Filing Separately" or "Married Filing Jointly" (the IRS's Interactive Tax Assistant (ITA) blesses each classification). Since https://www.irs.gov/tin/itin/individual-taxpayer-identification-number-itin#alien further confirms that joint filing is possible with an ITIN assigned to my wife and I am unable to file under "Head of Household," I cannot find cause to not file under "Married Filing Jointly" (following Opus 17's Form W-7 advice). Once my wife is permitted to cross the Pacific, we can then request a SSN and discontinue use of her ITIN forever.
If this intent is legally false or invalid, please point out my misunderstanding. Perhaps next year, with an assigned ITIN, I will be able to e-file again regardless of filing status - "Married Filing Separately" or "Married Filing Jointly" (though given our income disparity, I may use the latter every year).
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