I was wondering if anyone else is in (or has been) in the same situation as myself regarding the attainment of a taxpayer’s identification number for his or her UK spouse.

I applied with the W-7 form for this number thru the IRS @ the US Embassy in London (17th May), they took my two forms of ID and sent them back a few days later stating they'd forwarded the application to the Philadelphia IRS office. This causes one small problem regarding the filing of OF-169 to the embassy to get an interview for an IR-1 visa (we went the DCF route here in the UK). My USC spouse cannot file her 2000 tax return until she has this number she can put on the 1040; so consequently I cannot send off the checklist yet.

We have obtained everything else on the list (including the police certificate) but its just this ITIN number that’s holding me up. Does anyone else have this problem? Does the consulate really care about that number?

Thanks,
PrZ.

Can your wife not just submit tax years '97 to '99? Obviously she can't submit a copy
of a tax return she hasn't done yet!

Andy.

--
I'm not really here - it's just your warped imagination.

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Why doesn't she just base the affidavit on 97-99TY?

I think she will have to file her return before 15th June, with our without your ITIN. I believe that filing her 2000 return as 'married filing separately' will work well for the affidavit, as they will want to clearly see her own income, rather than your joint income.

Thanks for the reply ameriscot,

How can she base the affidavit on the 97-99 tax years when the most recent tax year is 2000? My joint sponsor (her father) provided years 2000 back thru 1998 as part of the affidavit package (which was notarised on April 26th).

I don't see how she could file by June 15th without my number, unless she submits an amendment when we get the number. Its awkward really, cause its expected she files, but she’s supposed to file as married (separately) and to do this she must put my ITIN down on the return.

Confused. (as always when it comes to the American tax system)

PrZ.

You could always phone them and find out whether they would accept 97,98,99. But there will be a problem of an unfiled 2000 tax return. I think you *have* to have it in by June 15th, unless you file for an extention. I can't remember if you can still do this, or have to have done it before April 15. You really don't want to have it unfiled, though.

If you aren't planning on moving till December, you have stacks of time for the interview, so I wouldn't stress about getting the OF-169 off quickly. The main concern is getting you tax return filed - saying that, we were late the last two years in the UK and it didn't faze them.

I was also concerned with my husbands US tax filing for year 2000 and confused if I needed an ITIN number. I emailed the IRS several times and I talked to a IRS tax expert at the US consulate. The tax expert told me that I did not need one because I was not being claimed as a spouse for tax exemption reasons and so their would be not point to get an ITIN number although I could if I wanted. I actually did apply for an ITIN number about 2-3 months ago and have not got one yet but I guess according to my last email to the IRS I don't need one. The first time I emailed the IRS I was told that I needed an ITIN number and then I emailed again and tried to be more specific in our situation and they emailed me back with this response......

My Question Was:

For the 2000 tax year, I am a spouse of a US Citizen we were living in Canada. Both of us had no US income. My husband will be filing married filing separately . Do I need an ITIN number. As far as I know, I am not
required to file a US tax return and I am not being claimed as a spouse for exemption reasons.

I think there is a little bit of confusion on this issue because on the W7 form it says that you need an ITIN number if you are filing as a spouse of a US citizen for tax exemption reasons or if you are a nonresident alien
required to file a US tax return because of US income or substantial presence or is a nonresident alien filing to claim a refund.

One IRS agent told me that I don t really need an ITIN number because of the
following reasons:
1 I had no US income and
2 I am a non-resident
3 we were not filing jointly
4 I had no substantial presence
5 I was not filing to claim a refund
6 I was not being claimed as a spouse for exemption purposes

Another IRS agent told me I needed an ITIN number because my husband will need to put it in the blank where it asks for your spouses SSN or ITIN
number.

Obviously we will not be getting a refund so do I need to apply for an ITIN number or not? If we leave this field blank, will this affect anything as we will not be getting a refund anyway?

PS. My husband has now moved back to the United States in 2001. We will be needing to produce our Tax return to the INS for proof of Financial Support
for my green card processing so we want to make sure this issue is settled.

Thank you

The Answer the IRS gave me was:

You would not need one now unless he had some tax owed on the 2000 return and wanted to take you as an exemption on his return. If not, he can just write non resident in that blank on the 2000 return. However he files for next year, you will have to have some number, if you are getting a social security number this year then why bother with an ITIN but if not, then I would get the itin this year.