Hi,

Actually I asked about this question back in December but I still have couple questions and hope someone could help me. Below is the question I posted back in Dec.

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My wife and I got married in 2007. She has been on F-1 student status since Aug.2002(She left the US for 6 months in early 2004 and came back in Aug.2004 to continue her study at another university). Given she has been on F1 more than 5 years(2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007), if she is to file tax return for the year 2007, should she file as a resident? Currently I am on F1 as well(I transferred from H1 back to F1 in Aug.2007). If we file joint return this year, can I choose to file as a resident with my wife and deduct the tuition expenses I(or we) paid during the year 2007? I am not sure what my status is in 2007 for taxes purposes. I am on F1 but I have not yet been on F1 for more than 5 years(I entered the US as a F1 student in 2003 and was on H1B from Jan.2006 to Aug.2007)

1. If I am dual status and I got married with a resident, shouldn't I be able to elect to be treated as a resident if I file jointly with my wife?

2. If I am resident, can't I deduct education expenses instead of just interest on education expenses? I thought eligible resident is able to deduct up to $4000 of education expenses from his income. Since I paid my tuition for myself, can't I deduct the amount?
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My questions now are:

1. Given the filing status for us, can we simply file(jointly) form 1040? i.e. Can we both file as residents and take the standard deduction and education credit? If so, are there any other forms we need to fill out showing we got married in 2007 and I choose to file jointly with my wife as a resident? Can I simply file form 1040 without any explanation and simply use the TurboTax kind of software to e-file the 2007 return?

2. Although my wife is resident for tax purposes in 2007, her employer didn't withhold any social security and medicare taxes. What should we do about this?

3. I had short term capital gains from stock trading in 2007(only 1 transaction). But the capital gain is not listed in the form 1099 I received. Should I just filled out form 2483 and filed with form 1040?

Thank you very much in advance.

1) Yes, but you must attach a residency choice statement for yourself that you are choosing to be treated as a resident alien for all of 2007. Hence, no efile.

2) Se has the legal obligation to inform her employer of the fact that she was a resident alien in 2007 and was liable for Social Security and Medicare taxes. Once that is done, the rest is up to the employer.

3) You need to report the capital gain using Schedule D.