I am so happy to have found a place where I can get some help! Wow! :D

I am a US citizen who has volunteered in a foreign country for the past three tax years. The organization, although international, is US based. They gave me 1099-MISC's at the end of each year for "non-employee compensation". I did not file for any of those three years because my gross income did not exceeded $7000 except for this last year which was $8721.00. To further complicate it, I married while abroad. Now I am back in the US and my husband is currently with me on a K3 visa and is still in the process of adjusting his status, has no SSN and so on. I was told by a tax accountant that I didn't have to file, but I'm really not sure now because I'm running into problems filing papers for my husband's immigration and the IRS wants to know why I didn't have to file!! HELP! :eek:

Here are my questions:

-Should I have filed for any of those years, especially the last one?
-The IRS seems to treat 1099s as self employment. Am I subject to self employment taxes for those years if I was just volunteering? The "non-employee compensation" didn't even cover living expenses... which I don't have all the receipts for.
-If I do have to file, what is my filing status if my husband is not even a citizen yet? Can I just file as single?

This is just so confusing. I will really really appreciate any help, as this is holding up my husbands immigration process. Thank you so much!

While you may not owe income taxes for those three years, it seems likely that you MAY owe self-employment tax. The tax would probably be either offset at least in part by the Earned Income Credit OR expenses claimed on the Schedule C would reduce your tax liability to zero.

I would recommend that you file these past due returns. You would not need receipts as you could claim per diem, which is a set amount of expenses claimed per day that does NOT have to be validated with receipts. Given the amount we are discussing, you could claim the standard per diem of $25 per day for 300 days to cover the amounts on the Form 1099-MISC.

For the last year, you could file as Married Filing Separately. Given your income level, tt would have no effect on your tax return.

If you need my professional tax help, contact me via email. Using phone, fax and email, I could prepare and mail you these returns by the end of the week.