MFS

[grandmabee]

New client she is us citizen but has a husband in cambodia. he has not been to the us. Does she file MFS or single?

I have no ss number to list if MFS

[Pacun]

Excellent question.

Any qualifying relative living with the wife? Does she support her parents? When did she get married?

You can file MFJ and request an ITIN for him but keep in mind the global income rule for both.

[grandmabee]

No one living with her. not supporting parents. married two years ago. last year she filed as single with H & R block

[Pacun]

Is her taxable income high? Is her tax liability higher if filing MFS vs single? If not, I don't see a problem with single since MFS it will cause more headakes to you, to the client and to the IRS (you will have to paper file).

[grandmabee]

her income is about 55,000 so yes it would be higher as mfs. I just want to do correct way and this is the first one I had with spouse in another country and not citizen or here

[Pacun]

The correct way is MFS and paper file it with a letter explaining the situation.

[jainen]

>>her income is about 55,000 <<

She is MARRIED, period. Filing as single would be blatant tax fraud, so I am apparently misreading some comments in this thread. Her only choices are Joint, Seperate, or (in other circumstances) HoH. I shouldn't say her only choices, because she still may have options to exclude his income or claim an exemption for him on her separate return. Any tax guide, including even the instructions to Form 1040, will be an easy review on that point.

I don't know where in Oregon you are, but if your client lives over the line in any direction she can (in fact, she must) allocate 1/2 of her community income to her spouse.

[grandmabee]

We are not a community property state and she does not live over any "line". What my original question was and I may have not stated it in the right way. But when I file MFS what do I do without a SS number for the spouse. leave it blank. I did say last year H & R block filed her single and thought maybe I was missing something

[kcjenkins]

I think his point on the 'over the line' comment was that both CA and WA are community property states, so some OR preparers who live close to the state line end up filing returns where one or both t/p's may work in OR and do business in OR, and use an OR preparer, but actually live in one of the other two states.

As to the original question, your only options are MFJ or MFS.

From Pub 519:

If, at the end of your tax year, you are married and one spouse is a U.S. citizen or a resident alien and the other spouse is a nonresident alien, you can choose to treat the nonresident spouse as a U.S. resident. This includes situations in which one spouse is a nonresident alien at the beginning of the tax year, but a resident alien at the end of the year, and the other spouse is a nonresident alien at the end of the year.

If you make this choice, you and your spouse are treated for income tax purposes as residents for your entire tax year. Neither you nor your spouse can claim under any tax treaty not to be a U.S. resident. You are both taxed on worldwide income. 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.

How To Make the Choice

Attach a statement, signed by both spouses, to your joint return for the first tax year for which the choice applies. It should contain the following information.

A declaration that one spouse was a nonresident alien and the other spouse a U.S. citizen or resident alien on the last day of your tax year, and that you choose to be treated as U.S. residents for the entire tax year.

The name, address, and identification number of each spouse. (If one spouse died, include the name and address of the person making the choice for the deceased spouse.)

[To deal with last year]

Amended return. You generally make this choice when you file your joint return. However, you can also make the choice by filing a joint amended return on Form 1040X. Attach Form 1040, Form 1040A, or Form 1040EZ and print “Amended” across the top of the corrected return. If you make the choice with an amended return, you and your spouse must also amend any returns that you may have filed after the year for which you made the choice.

You generally must file the amended joint return within 3 years from the date you filed your original U.S. income tax return or 2 years from the date you paid your income tax for that year, whichever is later.

[Pacun]

Why don't you file jointly and request an ITIN for the husband? Keep in mind that Cambodia's per capita income is somewhere around 3K dollars per year, which is well under Nicaragua's and Honduras' (just a reference point). It might not hurt to ask how much the husband made last year and report his global income on a joint return.

Credits available are:

Making the work credit

Extra Standard Deduction

Extra personal Exemption

Lower tax bracket.

Husband will have an ITIN and then you can e-file MFS next year.

If done earlier than March, You could able to open an IRA for him too for the years you file jointly.

[jainen]

>>both CA and WA are community property states<<

Idaho, too.

>>what do I do without a SS number<<

The instructions to Form 1040 have dropped the use of "NRA" (non-resident alien), though it's still available for the 1040NR. See page 8 of Instructions 1040NR. Apparently all of the choices which would allow her to file on Form 1040 require an SSN or TIN.

There's still time to get a TIN without an extension, because if she files a joint return the due date is June 15.

[Pacun]

There's still time to get a TIN without an extension, because if she files a joint return the due date is June 15.

Interesting. You could open an IRA for him before June 15th since that's their due date excluding extension.