I'm a U.S. citizen, I live with my foreign wife overseas.
My question, I understand that my wife is not eligible to receive any stimulus check as she does not have an SSN, am I eligible to receive the stimulus payments? taking into consideration that we have filed our 2019 taxes as married-jointly, also, would it help if we are going to file our 2020 taxes as a married-separately?
Please note that I have received the first stimulus check already as it was based on my 2018 taxes when I was not married then. Therefore, I'm not sure if I'm eligible to receive the second the third payments.
all that matters is how you file for 2020.
the stimulus is technically an advance of 2020 payments. What that means is the IRS used 2019 (or 2018) to ESTIMATE what you were due in 2020.
But what is on your 2020 tax return (income, dependents, marital status) is what you are ACTUALLY due
if the ACTUAL is greater than the ESTIMATE, the difference is credited to you on Line 30 of form 1040 and will increase your refund or reduce what you owe.
if the ESTIMATE is greater than the ACTUAL, you are not required to give it back and Line 30 will be zero, in fact Line 30 can never be negative.
sounds like you received $1200 and you are due $1800. Line 30 should show $600.
it's that simple.
ps the fact that your spouse does not have an SSN doesn't impact your ability to receive stimulus so suggest not making a decision to file joint or separate on that basis; it won't matter.
That sounds good to me. However, when I tried to file as married-jointly, in TurboTax, line 30 showed $2,400, did that count my wife's stimulus, even though she is not eligible?
did you enter the ACTUAL stimulus payments you received in the 'federal review section" of TT yet? You need to enter each of the first two separately and accurately for Line 30 to be correct
What are you using when TT asks for your wife's social security number?
Yes, I did enter the actual stimulus payments that I received. I have received only the first one which was the $1,200.
I leave the SSN field for my wife blank as she does not have one and therefore, I'm going to file the taxes by mail.
Also, I'm trying to submit a W7 application to get her an ITIN number along with the tax return.
I wonder if there is a bug because of the blank.
if you received $1200 for the first stimulus and nothing for the 2nd, there should be $600 on Line 30.
try this as a test.... enter a social security number for your wife, pick any numbers you want for the X's as long and use 92 in the middle
XXX-92-XXXX
what happens to Line 30?
(anything with a 92 in the middle is a ITIN so let's see if TT correctly puts $600 on line 30 - this is just a test to see where the problem is)
post back and let me know what happens.
I tested what you have suggested and it gave me $600 only on line 30 while having the marital status as married-jointly.
That sounds good, but now, how can I keep going in the TT to finalize the filing with a randomly chosen ITIN?
I think I need to keep it blank in order for me to finalize and mail the tax return along with the W7 form. Any tips regarding that?
yeah, so TT doesn't like the blank and incorrectly determined the credit
why can't you do this since you are going to file via paper in any event.
1) Leave it like you have it so that the $600 is on line 30, because that is the correct number.
2) print off the return. WHITE OUT your wife's 'fake' ITIN number.
3) mail to the IRS.
if you were e-filing, then we'd have a problem but since going via paper, this should work fine.
Perfect!
One last thing, on W7, regarding the documents that should be submitted along with the form, should they be originals, or copies are good? I’m submitting my wife’s driving license, her state ID and her birth certificate. Are those enough?
by the way when I submitted it along with 2019 taxes it got rejected by the IRS, back then I submitted the originals, they told me we additionally need a birth certificate as well but refused to tell me why it was rejected.
Copies are acceptable, but they have to be "certified" to the IRS's standards.
According to Supporting Documentation Requirements on page 3 of the Instructions for Form W-7,
You must submit original documents, or certified copies of these documents from the issuing agency, that support the information provided on Form W-7. A certified copy of a document is one that the original issuing agency provides and certifies as an exact copy of the original document and contains an official stamped seal from the agency. You may be able to request a certified copy of documents at an embassy or consulate.
Please read the entire section in the link above, just so you're clear as to what's acceptable.