US Taxes --- Pls help!!

[SocialMe]

My husband needs to file his US Taxes by tomorrow. He is here in Canada on a Visitor Record. We have not yet submitted the sponsorship but will be in the next two weeks. We got married last year in 2011 and he has been living here ever since.

On the US Tax return it asks his marital status. If he puts married, it wants to know my information (including SSN). I, of course, do not have a SSN nor ever need one as I am not American, nor live or work in the US and I never will.

So what how does he file his taxes? We don't want to lie but it seems the only way around it is to put 'single'.

Also, does he put his old US address or his Canadian address? If we put the Canadian address, doesn't that create a whole mess?

 

[muffy1]

I won't be much help but I can tell you that my accountant has me declare married on the forms. Same thing as you, my hubby doesn't have a SSN, either. I'm not sure how how does it or works it out exactly, but he did tell me that I had to file as married. Hopefully, someone else can shed more light on this. If you are finding you don't have the answers you need, can your accountant just file an extension for you?

 

[DCGelfling]

I just did this in March.

If he files married filing separately, he just puts NRA (for nonresident alien) for your ssn. There is a way for you to be declared a resident alien and get an itin, but I'm not sure that there's time for that, now. It might be worth looking into for next year, because then he could file as married filing jointly.

 

[DCGelfling]

Also, if he's filing online, taxact handled it better than turbotax when I did mine.

 

[Isometry]

I'm an American and my Canadian spouse has never lived or worked in America. We got married in 2011.

The tax guy I spoke with told me to file as Single. This is because my spouse has never lived or worked in the US, has no sources of income from the US, and we haven't lived together. This seemed like really weird advice but I eventually did, because I wasn't able to efile as Married Filing Separately without my spouses SSN, and of course he hasn't got one.

 

[pandapenda]

See basically he must say he is married and if you don't have a SSN just keep it blank. Call 800-829-3676 to confirm.

re: I do not see the issue of putting his old address as the mailing address alternatively can't he also put a friends US address. Some tax payers keep their accountant's address instead of theirs (but this is on the Canadian side of things).

Depending on why he completes a US tax return - is he a citizen, a green card holder, deemed resident, he might have other IRS compliance to complete especially when he starts living with you in Canada

For example he might need to complete an Fbar form for monetary accounts held outside US having a balance of more than $10k including joint accounts, etc. The fine for not completing this form is $10,000 per account per year.

I highly recommend you go to an accountant - fines by the IRS can go as high as $40,000 per year for simple non compliance issues like forgetting to complete a form

 

[SocialMe]

DCGelfling... you're awesome! We have been getting a headache with trying to do his taxes tonight and you saved us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been a loyal Turbotax user... my husband was first using Turbotax and even asked an online agent for help with our situation... she was in arizona... and we could tell she had no experience with this situation at all. She basically said to file an extension and get me an ITIN number... even though I don't need to file taxes at all in the US. This process would have taken 6-8 weeks.

Then I read your comments and we went to the TaxAct website and it soooooooooooo much better as it has that indicator that his spouse is a NRA and doesn't file taxes in the US.

Now they are done and we were 100% honest as the system had all the options we needed.

Thank you!!

 

[DCGelfling]

You are quite welcome. I'm glad I was able to help, because this forum has helped me so many times.

 

[OhCanadiana]

Just in case anyone is seeing this now, this year federal taxes are due on April 17 because of the weekend so you have a few extra hours. Also,

"If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien residing overseas, or are in the military on duty outside the U.S., on the regular due date of your return, you are allowed an automatic 2-month extension to file your return and pay any amount due without requesting an extension. For a calendar year return, the automatic 2-month extension is to June 15.

If you are unable to file your return by the automatic 2-month extension date, you can request an additional extension to October 15 by filing Form 4868 before the automatic 2-month extension date. However, any tax due payments made after June 15 will be subject to both interest charges and failure to pay penalties."

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=97324,00.html

 

[Belinasha]

My husband (American) claimed single on his tax return so we had to send in a 1040X to fix that problem. He put on there that he was married, filing separately. We included a copy of my 2011 Cdn tax return and a copy of my notice of assessment. We are waiting on his PR app, but even when he gets PR, as an American, he is required to file a U.S. tax return every year. The U.S. and Canada have a tax treaty so unless he makes more than 92k per year or has over 10k in total in bank accounts here, he should not have to pay tax in the U.S. on income made in Canada. I've read a few cases of people that check off 'married, filing separately' every year in the states and haven't had any problems with it thus far. In the cover letter to the I.R.S. we asked them to change his address to the one here in Canada.

I believe an ITIN is only required if a spouse is declaring a non-resident alien as a dependent or the U.S. Citizen chooses to file a joint U.S. return with a Canadian spouse. If a spouse is intending to get PR in Canada and is visiting in Canada with no intention of really leaving, I don't see why they'd choose to claim either of these things.

 

[DCGelfling]

I believe an ITIN is only required if a spouse is declaring a non-resident alien as a dependent or the U.S. Citizen chooses to file a joint U.S. return with a Canadian spouse. If a spouse is intending to get PR in Canada and is visiting in Canada with no intention of really leaving, I don't see why they'd choose to claim either of these things.

I considered it, but only because I'm a full-time student and the IRS won't let you take the various educational credits if you file separately. I did decide that the hassle wasn't likely to be worth it since I was already getting everything back, anyway.