I filed my taxes this year on feb 10 along with my wife's W7 application for ITIN along with other documents.after calls to IRS in march and April end,I was told at the end of may that my wife's ITIN has been mailed on 14 may.I applied for state tax refund with the ITIN given to us by IRS official on phone.However,when I did not receive the ITIN letter till mid June,I called IRS again and was told that there might have been a "postal delay" and I should wait another week.I am still waiting on the ITIN letter from IRS.do we need to have that letter as a proof of ITIN or it is not needed?I mean do we need that letter for any kind of record or just that number would be enough to file the taxes in future?
Thanks

Contact the IRS and ask them to mail you another copy of the ITIN letter. While the USPS does not get a fair shake in terms of their mail loss percentages, some mail DOES in fact get lost. It looks like your ITIN letter is one of those loses.

I faced the same situation. Had applied for ITIN in March. Whenever I contacted IRS, I was told that they have already mailed my ITIN to me. I actually ended up calling them every week since May and got the same reply. I finally got my ITIN yesterday. I would suggest you to call them and ask them to send it to you again and keep following up with them. That's what I did.

Yes, persistence helps in such matters!

Thanks for the info... we called IRS and after getting confused,looking and re-looking again,they finally told us that they will re-mail the ITIN letter on July 5th and we should wait 4 more weeks after that before calling them up again!.

That sound's typical of the IRS.

I have applied for my ITIN for my wife recently and I am waiting for it so that I can file the state tax. What if I do not get her ITIN before the October deadline??

The ITIN backlog is practically gone, so you SHOULD get the ITIN in about 4-6 weeks, well before the 15 Oct 07 deadline.

However, if you owe NO money and/or are due a refund, then your deadline is NOT 15 Oct 07, but rather 15 April 2010, THREE YEARS after the initial 15 April 2007 deadline.

In other words, if you mail it in November 2007, it will make NO DIFFERENCE!

Just to let you know an ITIN is only valid for federal tax purposes, not state. You might not have to wait to file your state return. Contact your local state tax office concerning your states requirements for id numbers on state tax returns. Also, yes the backlog of assigning ITIN numbers is being resolved and if you have filed your documents correctly you should be receiving your number soon, depending on when you applied.

The states DO use the dependent's ITIN in place of the SSNs.

Some states do NOT require ITINs for the dependents, while others (like California) will let you send the ITIN after you file.