Sophisgent

What, if any, requirements are there for a K1visa international spouse arriving
in U. S. in Fall of 2003 and marrying in 2003 to file federal income tax return
when this person has no income?

Pros and cons?

Mrtravelkay

Sophisgent wrote:

    > What, if any, requirements are there for a K1visa international spouse arriving
    > in U. S. in Fall of 2003 and marrying in 2003 to file federal income tax return
    > when this person has no income?
    >
    > Pros and cons?

Pros and cons would depend on individual circumstance. However, if the
immigrant had no US income, they are not required to file a US return.
It might work out if you file a joint return, it might not. That is what
tax professionals are for, unless you can calculate it yourself.
I can give you a easy example.

1. US Citizen spouse takes standard deduction, and makes enough money to
be able to deduct the full standard deduction and still has tax
liability.
2. Foreign spouse earns 0.
3. If married, filing jointly, they would come out ahead as the standard
deduction would be higher, so the taxable income would be lower.

This is one example...

Marjeta

Me and my husband were in the same situation last year... We got married in December and filed jointly, which means bigger refund.
Other than that I don't think there are any requirements to file for income tax, if you have no income. (??)

Just Jenney

Like Mr Travel said, it really does depend on individual circumstances, as well as preferences. But let me run down what Mark & I ultimately did:

Mark came to the US in May 2003, and we married in June. His only income in 2003 was from his UK job before he came over, no US income at all.

We filed a joint 1040 return. To do this, we included a declaration that we were both choosing for Mark to be considered a US resident alien for tax purposes for 2003, which we both signed and dated.

We included Form 2555 for Foreign-Earned Income exclusion to exclude Mark's reported UK income from taxation. Mark qualified by meeting the physical presence test. While we technically didn't need to report Mark's UK income, by filing jointly we got a higher standard deduction, which saved us money in the long run.

(Note: We could've filed Form 2555-EZ, but we were using Turbo Tax and that only has Form 2555; either way it worked out fine.)

Some relevant links:

Nonresident Spouse Treated as a Resident -- see page 10
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf

Form 2555-EZ - Foreign-Earned Income Exclusion instructions
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i2555ez.pdf

Hope this helps!

~ Jenney

Robin

[email protected] (Sophisgent) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > What, if any, requirements are there for a K1visa international spouse arriving
    > in U. S. in Fall of 2003 and marrying in 2003 to file federal income tax return
    > when this person has no income?
    >
    > Pros and cons?

My husband came into the USA in July 2002 and we married in July 2003.
Not only did I get his deduction but also one for my stepson. Made a
HUGE difference in the amount of tax I had to pay. It is definitely
worth it to you to file married, jointly. Instead of a personal
deduction for just you, you get a deduction for him as well. If he
had income from another country, you just need to claim it and but
then US Tax law allows you to exclude most of it.(Can't remember the
form off the top of my head I did my taxes last year on Turbo-Tax and
had no problems.

Frawley411

In article <[email protected] >,
[email protected] (Robin) writes:

    >[email protected] (Sophisgent) wrote in message
    >news:<[email protected]>...
    >> What, if any, requirements are there for a K1visa international spouse
    >arriving
    >> in U. S. in Fall of 2003 and marrying in 2003 to file federal income tax
    >return
    >> when this person has no income?
    >>
    >> Pros and cons?
    >My husband came into the USA in July 2002 and we married in July 2003.
    >Not only did I get his deduction but also one for my stepson. Made a
    >HUGE difference in the amount of tax I had to pay. It is definitely
    >worth it to you to file married, jointly. Instead of a personal
    >deduction for just you, you get a deduction for him as well. If he
    >had income from another country, you just need to claim it and but
    >then US Tax law allows you to exclude most of it.(Can't remember the
    >form off the top of my head I did my taxes last year on Turbo-Tax and
    >had no problems.

In addition, it's one more document that has both of your names listed and you
will want this sort of thing when going through AOS, then again when filing to
remove conditions. Hard to imagine how you wouldn't come out ahead filing
jointly anyway since the income remains static while the deduction increases.



"I dare to say so because I have a long experience in doing things
that noone failed to do them successfully." - Ajarn Supat (05/02/44)