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I-751: tax return as the evidence of our relationship

I-751: tax return as the evidence of our relationship

Old May 23rd 2008, 3:04 pm
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Red face I-751: tax return as the evidence of our relationship

I am a conditional permanent resident. My permanent residency status was granted in Nov 2006 and so my conditional green card expires in Nov 09/08.

We need to file the I-751 petition to remove the conditions on my permanent residency.

Together with the petition my husband and I should provide the
Evidence of our Relationship.

One of the possible evidence documents is a copy of our joint tax returns.
As I already mentioned, we arrived in the country at the end of the year 2006,we did not file any taxes for the year 2006.

2007 was our first business year in America.
I am a housewife.
My husband is a translator and interpreter.
He is self-employed and works for cash. There are no papers showing his income.
Most of the money he made in 2007 was spent on business development and we lived on savings that we made in Russia.

So, we are concerned that our 2007 tax return may look weird because it shows that all the money we made was spent on rent, utilities and on paying taxes and very little money left to live on.

Our 2007 joint tax return is an important document proving our relationship.

Can it look weird for the USCIS?
Will they pay attention to this?
We don’t want them to think that we are cheating on taxes.
We do not want them to invite us for the interview.


Do they, actually, pay attention to how much money we are making or to the fact that taxe return was filed jointly?
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Old May 23rd 2008, 4:38 pm
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Default Re: I-751: tax return as the evidence of our relationship

Originally Posted by luchikosho
I am a conditional permanent resident. My permanent residency status was granted in Nov 2006 and so my conditional green card expires in Nov 09/08.

We need to file the I-751 petition to remove the conditions on my permanent residency.
You realize it's still too early to file the I-751, right? You can only file in the 90-day window just before your conditional status expires.

One of the possible evidence documents is a copy of our joint tax returns.
As I already mentioned, we arrived in the country at the end of the year 2006,we did not file any taxes for the year 2006.
Are you a USC? If you were married during any part of the year in 2006, you should have still filed your tax return as "married". Why didn't you file any return at all?

2007 was our first business year in America. I am a housewife.
My husband is a translator and interpreter. He is self-employed and works for cash. There are no papers showing his income.
Whether he has papers showing his income or not, he needs to report the income he earns. My alien husband is also self employed and he does not receive income statements from his clients, either. But we keep track of his income, and we report it on the tax return. This is what you should have done, otherwise you are withholding information from IRS...not a good thing.

So, we are concerned that our 2007 tax return may look weird because it shows that all the money we made was spent on rent, utilities and on paying taxes and very little money left to live on.
USCIS doesn't really care what your finances look like on the tax return, they just want to see you were filing "married".

Can it look weird for the USCIS?
Most likely not.

Will they pay attention to this?
Most likely not.

We don’t want them to think that we are cheating on taxes.
USCIS doesn't care if you cheat on your taxes, but IRS does.

We do not want them to invite us for the interview.
You don't really have much control over that. You can still be called for an interview even if you have a perfect I-751 package. Sometimes they just call people for an interview for random quality control purposes.

Do they, actually, pay attention to how much money we are making or to the fact that taxe return was filed jointly?
USCIS doesn't care how much money you show on your tax return. They don't even care if you filed jointly. They want to see that you filed "married".

Best Wishes,
Rene

p.s. - I was going to move your post to the Marriage-Based Visa forum, but I'm not a mod here so I couldn't. Maybe one of the other mods can. It belongs over there.
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Old May 26th 2008, 5:49 pm
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Default Re: I-751: tax return as the evidence of our relationship

Hi,
Your answers are really helpful. They are so detailed. Thanks a lot. I just wanted to ask a couple of things.



Originally Posted by Noorah101
You realize it's still too early to file the I-751, right? You can only file in the 90-day window just before your conditional status expires.


Are you a USC? If you were married during any part of the year in 2006, you should have still filed your tax return as "married". Why didn't you file any return at all?

At that time Nov and Dec of 2006 we were just thinking what to do, we did not work and lived on savings we brought from Russia. Did we have to report that, too? My husband said it's ok, that we did not have to file anything. I thought he knew better.
So, we did not file our tax return in 2006, what can we do about it?



Whether he has papers showing his income or not, he needs to report the income he earns. My alien husband is also self employed and he does not receive income statements from his clients, either. But we keep track of his income, and we report it on the tax return. This is what you should have done, otherwise you are withholding information from IRS...not a good thing.

How exactly do we report our income on tax return? Do we have to show each transaction somehow? I thought if we filed our tax return we automatically reported our income. Isn't it so?

USCIS doesn't really care what your finances look like on the tax return, they just want to see you were filing "married".


Most likely not.


Most likely not.


USCIS doesn't care if you cheat on your taxes, but IRS does.


You don't really have much control over that. You can still be called for an interview even if you have a perfect I-751 package. Sometimes they just call people for an interview for random quality control purposes.


USCIS doesn't care how much money you show on your tax return. They don't even care if you filed jointly. They want to see that you filed "married".

Best Wishes,
Rene

p.s. - I was going to move your post to the Marriage-Based Visa forum, but I'm not a mod here so I couldn't. Maybe one of the other mods can. It belongs over there.

Thanks again for everything
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Old May 26th 2008, 7:05 pm
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Default Re: I-751: tax return as the evidence of our relationship

I think you are asking how to report income when you are self-employed and you don't receive a 1099 at the end of the year, right? That's the situation my husband is in also.

We keep track of his income throughout the year, and then at the end of the year we tell our tax preparer how much he earned. We don't have to show proof of deposits or proof of income, no. We just list the amount he earned. We do keep bank statements and the yearly spreadsheet in case we get audited. My alien husband is still having trouble remembering to either make photocopies of the checks he receives or writing down the specific information (who paid him, what date, etc). This is new to him and it's hard to change old habits where he didn't have to keep track of things for tax purposes.

Also, you should pay quarterly taxes on self-employed income so that he gets SS credit as well.

You can contact IRS to ask how to do an amended tax return for 2006.

Best Wishes,
Rene
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Old May 27th 2008, 1:20 am
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Default Re: I-751: tax return as the evidence of our relationship

Originally Posted by luchikosho
I am a conditional permanent resident. My permanent residency status was granted in Nov 2006 and so my conditional green card expires in Nov 09/08.

We need to file the I-751 petition to remove the conditions on my permanent residency.

Together with the petition my husband and I should provide the
Evidence of our Relationship.

One of the possible evidence documents is a copy of our joint tax returns.
As I already mentioned, we arrived in the country at the end of the year 2006,we did not file any taxes for the year 2006.
The tax year runs from January to December so if you arrived during 2006, you'll have to file a 2006 tax return, even if you owe the IRS nothing.

2007 was our first business year in America.
I am a housewife.
My husband is a translator and interpreter.
He is self-employed and works for cash. There are no papers showing his income.
Most of the money he made in 2007 was spent on business development and we lived on savings that we made in Russia.

So, we are concerned that our 2007 tax return may look weird because it shows that all the money we made was spent on rent, utilities and on paying taxes and very little money left to live on.

Our 2007 joint tax return is an important document proving our relationship.
IMHO, a tax return doesn't prove any kind of relationship. It should be included in your I-751 application but the USCIS is looking for co-mingled finances. e.g. health insurance policies, life insurance policies, joint bank account(s), joint mortgage/rental agreement, etc.

Can it look weird for the USCIS?
Will they pay attention to this?
We don’t want them to think that we are cheating on taxes.
We do not want them to invite us for the interview.


Do they, actually, pay attention to how much money we are making or to the fact that taxe return was filed jointly?
You haven't described all the documentation you plan on including in your I-751 application so I don't think anyone can say at this point if your application looks weird. Just bear in mind that if you lie/deceive USCIS and you're caught later on, you've really screwed yourselves. So, honesty would be the best policy IMO.
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Old May 27th 2008, 1:47 am
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Default Re: I-751: tax return as the evidence of our relationship

Originally Posted by NC Penguin
The tax year runs from January to December so if you arrived during 2006, you'll have to file a 2006 tax return, even if you owe the IRS nothing.



IMHO, a tax return doesn't prove any kind of relationship. It should be included in your I-751 application but the USCIS is looking for co-mingled finances. e.g. health insurance policies, life insurance policies, joint bank account(s), joint mortgage/rental agreement, etc.



You haven't described all the documentation you plan on including in your I-751 application so I don't think anyone can say at this point if your application looks weird. Just bear in mind that if you lie/deceive USCIS and you're caught later on, you've really screwed yourselves. So, honesty would be the best policy IMO.
If they didn't have enough income to meet the filing requirements, they do not 'have to' file.
However, the USC may not be aware that he has to report all his overseas income--he should look into that.

Tax returns filed 'married/joint' or 'married/separate' do show financial co-mingling, and are evidence of relationship. You wouldn't file 'married' tax returns with someone you aren't married with! But they are only one piece/type of evidence.


luchikosho: they are not evaluating how much money you earned; the tax returns are required for other reasons.
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