I am a u.s. citizen and my husband is not. We have not filed yet for his citizenship therefore he does not have a ss# or any u.s. id #. I want to file jointly because this gives us the best benefits, and he has not been able to work so our income is only from one person. What should I do?

Where do you live; inside or outside the US?

Donna:

You can file jointly with your husband and you both CHOSE to be treated as resident aliens. This will allow you to claim the $11,400 joint standard deduction plus two $3,650 personal exemption (for yourself and your husband) .

You will need to submit Form W-7 to apply for an ITIN for your husband . A notarized photocopy of his passport needs to be stapled to the W-7.

His physical location is irrelevent; he could be on Mars for all the IRS cares.

The downside is that you must declare ALL 2009 world-wide income (yours and his), but you can at least partially offset any double taxation by claiming a Foreign Tax Credit (Form 1116).

Even with the downside, this is probably the best way for you to file.

If you want professional help doing this, email me at [email protected].

U.S. citizen or resident can file joint return as residents irrespective of citizenship or resident status of spouse as well if spouse lived in the U.S. or not.

With all due respect to my colleagues here, where you live does have some relevance.

As you know Donna, before your spouse can join you in filing he will need a taxpayer identification number. If you and he are resident in America, he may be eligible for a Social Security number and thus ineligible for an ITIN. If he is without the US then he will file a W-7.

How to do that is covered in detail in other posts.