Hello There,

I am on H1B Work Visa since last 3.5 years now and have been filing tax return as single since last 3 years.

I got married on Dec 29th 2005 in India and have marriage certificate from india.

My spouse is a Malaysian Citizen born and brought up there. She came to USA on H4 dependent visa on Feb 11th 2006.

She visited USA for 4 weeks in Aug 2005 on a Tourist Visa when we were not married at that time. She does not pass the substantial presence test for year 2005.

I work for Deloitte & Touché where I have to travel a lot at different client sites and hence have 3 W2's. One from VA (my home state), one from NY and one from RI.

My questions:

1) Should I file as single or married filing joint or married filing separately ?
2) Which exact forms should I fill. My annual salary last year was 72000 US dollars ?
3) My wife has not lived as my dependent in 2005 as such. Can I still claim her as my dependent for tax purposes or not?
4) What is the procedure that I should follow to get her ITIN?
5) Since it might take a while to get ITIN I might pass the deadline of April 15th for filing State tax. How do I over come that ?
6) What are the different kind of exemptions that I can get if I file as married filing joint.
7) I do not have any deductions as such. The only thing I usually get every year is standard deduction. Does that make any difference if I file jointly or separate?
8) What is the best course of action if you were in my situation.

Thanks in advance and Regards,

Amit

Amit:

File Form 1040EZ and file Married Filing Jointly. Put your wife's name in the section for spouse. Leave the SSN area blank.

Download Form W-7 from www.irs.gov and fill it in; have your wife sign it. Make a photocopy of her passport and get the photocopy notarized. Attach both the W-7 and the notarized passport photocopy to the Form 1040EZ and mail it to the address on the Form W-7.

The IRS will issue her an ITIN, insert the ITIN where the SSN goes, and process the return. They will send you her ITIN by letter.

If you do this sometime this week, there is a good chance you will get the ITIN back before April 15th, at which time you can file your state tax returns.

Now, filing the state returns can be tricky. You may want to get professional help to keep from paying too much tax.

Contact me at [email protected] if you want to use my services.