US Citizen Married to NRA with no ITIN, first time filing married, how to proceed?

[Nigel2]

Hi Folks,

Need steps on how to proceed. Subject covers most of it, should we both file by mail? Can turbotax help me with prep and then can I pay/print for mailing?

1) US Citizen: no US income, not claiming benefits & MFS status, living abroad with spouse (no dependents), seeking to file = 1040 and attached 2555 Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, correct?

2) NRA Spouse: no US income, not claiming benefits & MFS status, living abroad together (no dependents), seeking to file = 1040 (with SSN/ITIN area blank), Form 2555, and W7 with supplementals (certified foreign identity doc), correct?

Any information would be appreciated. I would like to submit soon due to COVID-19 extension of deadline to July 15th, 2020.

Thank you.

[VictoriaD75 · Accepted solution]

If your spouse does not have a SSN or ITIN, you cannot file a joint return. You can file your US tax return as Married Filing Separately, and just report your own income there.  TurboTax can walk you through this process, and help you create the necessary Form 1040.  If your spouse does not already have an ITIN number, or a Social Security Number, then this return would have be printed and paper filed.  If your spouse has a valid ITIN or SSN, then the tax return would be eligible for e-filing.

If there is no ITIN or SSN, then in any place where the nonresident spouse's taxpayer ID number is required on a tax form, you would take a black or blue pen and manually write "nonresident alien" or abbreviate as "NRA."  In the TurboTax software, you can input any "made up" SSN or ITIN you want to, in order get through the program (we suggest 999-88-9999, 999-88-9998 or 999-88-9987, as those numbers won’t produce any TurboTax program errors in a review check) as a temporary "placeholder.”  You can then later "white out" that number when the paper pages are printed.

[Nigel2]

Thank you @VictoriaD75 for the information! I am pleased to say everything worked on the returns.

After recording the placeholder SSNs they do still show up on the saved pdf for printing and mail filing.I would like to clarify: you mentioned "whiting out" the placeholder SSN on paper and to put 'NRA.' Is white-out or liquid paper acceptable to make corrections for the IRS? Would it be preferred to cross out with black or blue ink and write 'NRA' above the field?

More information would be appreciated, thanks your help.

[CatinaT1]

White out is acceptable.  

[edeatonrocha]

So to be clear, @VictoriaD75 , I live in Mexico, married to a U.S. non-resident alien.  I'd like to try and do my U.S. taxes (because I earned money last year in the U.S.) on TurboTax, but it looks like  I cannot e-file?  Does this mean I must print out the finished forms from TurboTax and mail them (takes about a month) from Mexico?

If there any way I can e-file?  With someone else maybe?

[ThomasM125]

You cannot e-file with a tax ID number no matter what tax return preparation software you use, since it is the IRA that makes that rule. You will need to mail the tax return in.

@edeatonrocha