confusedExpat
Apr 17, 2012, 11:34 AM
Hello,
I am an American citizen and have been living in Brazil for the last 3 1/2 years doing my master's degree which I just finished at the end of February. I earned the equivalent of only 648 USD per month from my govt scholarship, which comes out to $7776 a year. I received the scholarship money for two years from April 2010 to March 2012. This income is not taxable in Brazil and I have never filed Brazilian income taxes since I never needed to. I have also never filed American income taxes before since I never made enough money to have to do so.
Last year, I married a Brazilian woman. Therefore, my filing status would change from single to married filing jointly or separately. If I choose to file jointly, my wife who is a nonresident alien would be considered a resident of the US for tax purposes and her income (she makes double what I make) would be taxed by the US. So, it would make more sense to file separately. Based on Publication 501, anyone filing separately who makes at least $3700 (which I do) would have to file (see Table 1):
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf
However, I would need to apply for an ITIN number for my wife so that I can declare her as my spouse on my tax return. The problem is that she already has an immigration visa and we are going to move to the US in a month and a half on June 4 of this year. They warn you on the W7 form (the ITIN application form) that you should NOT apply for an ITIN if you have a SSN or are eligible to get one. My wife will get a SSN one since she elected to automatically apply for one on one of the forms we filled out, though I think that bureaucractic process will begin one enter into the US. I do not want to do anything tax-wise that could mess up her immigration status or cause problems for her in the US.
I luckily have until June 17 this year to file my taxes since I have lived in Brazil for at least 330 days over the past year and thus qualify automatically for the two month extension.
I've already done some research on the subject, including several hours on the phone with the IRS, but I'm still not really sure what to do. I could really use some expert advice.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Peter
I am an American citizen and have been living in Brazil for the last 3 1/2 years doing my master's degree which I just finished at the end of February. I earned the equivalent of only 648 USD per month from my govt scholarship, which comes out to $7776 a year. I received the scholarship money for two years from April 2010 to March 2012. This income is not taxable in Brazil and I have never filed Brazilian income taxes since I never needed to. I have also never filed American income taxes before since I never made enough money to have to do so.
Last year, I married a Brazilian woman. Therefore, my filing status would change from single to married filing jointly or separately. If I choose to file jointly, my wife who is a nonresident alien would be considered a resident of the US for tax purposes and her income (she makes double what I make) would be taxed by the US. So, it would make more sense to file separately. Based on Publication 501, anyone filing separately who makes at least $3700 (which I do) would have to file (see Table 1):
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf
However, I would need to apply for an ITIN number for my wife so that I can declare her as my spouse on my tax return. The problem is that she already has an immigration visa and we are going to move to the US in a month and a half on June 4 of this year. They warn you on the W7 form (the ITIN application form) that you should NOT apply for an ITIN if you have a SSN or are eligible to get one. My wife will get a SSN one since she elected to automatically apply for one on one of the forms we filled out, though I think that bureaucractic process will begin one enter into the US. I do not want to do anything tax-wise that could mess up her immigration status or cause problems for her in the US.
I luckily have until June 17 this year to file my taxes since I have lived in Brazil for at least 330 days over the past year and thus qualify automatically for the two month extension.
I've already done some research on the subject, including several hours on the phone with the IRS, but I'm still not really sure what to do. I could really use some expert advice.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Peter