snowbunny

I'm sure some of you have gone through this.

If a USC (resident in the US, employed in the US) marries a foreign citizen (previously resident in another country, employed solely in that country and not in the US), and the foreign citizen gains PR and moves to the US.....

what are the tax consequences?

Under US tax law, two USCs who marry during a tax year must file as married (jointly or singly) for that entire tax year, even if they marry on 31 December.

In the case of the foreign spouse, is the couple's total income (earned in two different countries) what must be reported? How does the foreign spouse gain credit for taxes already paid in his/her home country?

As usual irs.gov is not especially helpful.

paddingtongreen

Here is a start:

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/...=96734,00.html

NC Penguin

Have you searched for threads on this topic in the US Marriage Based forum? There might have been some OT discussion about taxes.



NC Penguin

dbj1000

PaddingtonGreen's link tells you most of what you need to know. It looks like you have the choice to elect that a foreign spouse be treated as a resident for tax purposes, regardless of whether they meet the substantial presence test.

I think in general it's a good thing to file your US taxes as a resident when possible, since non-residents are eligible for hardly any of the deductibles that residents are.

As for foreign-earned income, there have been a number of threads on this in the past. It may depend, however, on the nationality of the foreign spouse, or where the money was earned and taxed. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion allows US residents (either USCs, resident aliens or those who are resident for tax purposes) to exclude up to $80,000 of foreign earned income from IRS tax calculations.

However, if the foreign spouse is from a country like the UK that has a tax treaty with the US then there are other ways to exclude income which was taxed by a foreign system, since the treaty says that you cannot be taxed twice.

So who's the lucky man, Snowbunny?

snowbunny

I've been accused of talking about him until I bore everyone to tears!

Ray

FFS ..are you a registered blind person .......

snowbunny

See what I mean?

Even if he is, the computer will read out the text!

dbj1000

Ray, I read about 10% of the drivel on these boards, so you'll have to forgive me when I miss the occasional pearl of wisdom or bit of gossip. Apparently Snowbunny's bloke tales got lost in all the drivel.

Ray

Typical ..you spend too much time time looking at interesting thing instead of the mundane and boring ..I am sorry ...you are going to have to uprate your input to 33% minimum

Leslie

Are blind people actually required to register themselves?

What about those with hideously horribly eyesight?

Ray

That would be me .....I still can't find the kitchen...

Leslie

I am physically incapable of seeing dirt.... therefore I am not required to clean it.