SeeYouLaterAligator

hi all

Its that time of year and I'm really confused this year. We are now living in the USA moved here in October 2007. We took some time and played tourist for awhile and we loved it.

The problem that we have now is - we don't know how to do our taxes. We did not take jobs in the US until just last week - so we did not work in the US during 2007. All our income was when we were living in the UK.

Do we still file our taxes with just our foreign income?

Does the Green Card Holder need to file 2007 Taxes because they entered the US during 2007?

I tried doing a search but I am struggling to find the answer and really would appreciate some input from others who has experienced this.

Thank you.

Noorah101

You are the USC, so you must file an income tax return, just as you always have. You will include green-card-holding hubby on your tax return, yes. Actually I see you were married in 2006....so how did you do your 2006 tax returns? You'd pretty much do 2007 the same as 2006. File married (either married jointly or married separately, whichever works to your advantage).

Now, how working only in the UK affects your US tax return, I don't know...probably a better question for a tax professional.

Rene

SeeYouLaterAligator

Thanks Rene

I have filed my taxes via London while I was living in the UK. For 2006 I filed Married filing seperate because Hubby didn't have a Social Security number yet so I didn't have to include his income, but did have to include his name. I only had to include my foreign income.

I am guessing that I NOW file Married Jointly and have to INCLUDE his foreign income?

He was self employed in the UK so he has always filed his UK taxes as self employed. ( no payslips, etc just used his books, etc)


This should be interesting to find out. I was trying to understand the IRS website but I guess I'm going to need to talk to someone cause I'm not sure if our foreign income will be taxed in the US??

Gee, how did everyone else do it when they first moved to America? LOL

confusing - gotta love tax time.

I guess they have now approved the Tax Rebate - but I'm sure that won't include us since we didn't pay US Taxes, haha, oh well, maybe next year we will get a rebate! LOL

thanks again, you have always been such a wonderful help to all.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

See a CPA who knows how to do it. My GUESS is that YOU have to file on all of your 2007 income, while he probably does not. However, it may be advantageous to file a joint return. I also have a lot of questions.

meauxna

Yes. If he came over with an Immigrant Visa, he became a Permanent Resident at entry.

If he became a PR some other way, read the detail on the page to see.

Start here: Residency Starting Date

This is good too:
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p514/index.html

MsElui

we also came over in october (on L1/2). However my husbands firm supply the srevices of KPMG for the first year to get the tax sorted out. Thansk the lord as i have no idea what to do. The tax advisor did say we would have to fill in a calender stating where we were every day of 2007. ie in us or in uk for each day - to determine our liability.

ian-mstm

Hmm... seems a bit silly if you didn't move to the US until October. You obviously were not in the US for more than 6 months, so you are not automatically considered resident for tax purposes. However, you can choose to be considered resident for tax purposes... so I don't see why a calendar would even be necessary.

Ian

meauxna

They may have been here on temporary assignments before October.

snowbunny

Please do see a CPA. My circumstances are different to yours in that my non-USC spouse moved to the US in 2006 after we married; I'd been resident in the US for the entire time.

In my investigations as to our options for filing, I found that filing separately would have hugely penalised us not only as to the tax rates, but would have prevented either of us from itemising our deductions (if this is a concern to you). There are two major routes: *excluding* foreign income, and getting a tax credit for taxes paid to the UK. It's all extremely confusing and there is definitely no one-size-fits-all. The only examples given in the tax instructions were for single people or married couples with same nationality, moving to the US; or USCs who worked abroad temporarily. Argh.

kins

I would get onto the Turbo Tax website and answer the questions one at a time. I think you should probably file jointly - we do that (having been in a similar situation) and it seems to work.

It will guide you through doing your main form (1040 I think) and the form to exclude your foreign earned income (2555).

You should be able to claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion on the income you earned abroad.

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/...=96822,00.html

If you can't work it out on Turbo Tax then I'd hire someone ;-)

jakevisa

will green card holders get the 'tax rebate' if it becomes law?

snowbunny

You'd have to read the fine print and since I don't think it's law yet, then nothing's final.

My guess would be all USC / PR but who knows? My husband is a PR, I'm a USC, so it'll be interesting to see.