Hi, I have a couple of questions regarding US taxation:

1) If I start to work on Octuber 1st 2006 when do I have to pay taxes for year 2006?
2) Can I claim my wife and 2 kids as dependents if they have H4 visas? do they need an ITIN number?

Regards,

Javier Vazquez

1) You will have to file a tax return to pay taxes for Oct - Dec 2006. That return is normally due on April 15th (see #2).

2) You cannot claim your children as dependent (unless you are from Mexico), because they have not been in the United States long enough; you will be able to claim them in 2007. You can never claim your wife as a dependent while filing as a resident alien. You should be able to file jointly with your wife by filing under First Year Choice and opting to be treated as a resident alien for the entire year. This allows you to claim the Standard Deduction of $10,400 instead of $5,200 if you file by yourself.

Otherwise, you file as a dual-status alien. Then you can claim your wife as a dependent, but you lose the higher $10,400 Standard Deduction.

Let me know if you are from Mexico. Special rules apply then.

ATE, thank you very much for the information.

Let me know if you are from Mexico?
I'm not a Mexican Citizen.

I have another question, if my son goes to a day care can I get credit for those expenses in year 2007? my wife is not working since she is on a H4.

Regards,

Javier Vazquez

Javier:

You can claim child care credits only if your wife is working OR if she is attending college.

Where ARE you from? The U.S. may have a tax trreaty with your home country which may allow you to claim your children.

ATE, I'm from Venezuela.

I have done a little more research, and I am changing my guidance.

You SHOULD be able to claim your children as dependents (assuming they lived with you the entire year) if you opt to be treated as resident aliens for the entire year, because they will be considered resident aliens as well.

You may want to download IRS Pub 901 from www.irs.gov to see if there are any provisions of the Venezuela-U.S. Tax Treaty that apply to you. I think not, but I may be wrong.

ATE, Venezuela does not have a Tax Treaty with Venezuela. I'm about to fill the W-4 form and I don't know what to do, should I include my kids as dependents or not? What do I have to do to claim them as my dependents? (They lived with me the entire year), do I have to fill a special form?

No special form is required. Count your children as dependents.