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Should I file Married Filing Jointly or Head of Household

 
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Should I file Married Filing Jointly or Head of Household

If you are legally married and living with your spouse you can only file as Married Filing Jointly or Married Filing Separately.  You would want to file as MFJ even if one spouse has little or no income.

Should I file Married Filing Jointly or Head of Household

My husband got his green card May 2019, he doesn't have SSN or ITIN, and he doesn't work in the USA either. He stayed in the US for about 5 months since he landed the US. Should I file him as MFJ or HoH?

Should I file Married Filing Jointly or Head of Household


@maggiebaby2011 wrote:

My husband got his green card May 2019, he doesn't have SSN or ITIN, and he doesn't work in the USA either. He stayed in the US for about 5 months since he landed the US. Should I file him as MFJ or HoH?


If you have a child that is being claimed as a dependent on your tax return you can file as Head of Household.  If you do not have a child to claim as a dependent then you can only file as Married Filing Separately if not applying for an ITIN for your spouse.

 

If you are a US citizen 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/questions/1944348-how-do-i-print-and-mail-my-return-in-turbotax-online

 

If you are filing 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 pages 6 and 7 - 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

 

 

 

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