Dear Tax Experts,

Let me begin by saying Happy New Year!! I would be grateful if anybody could give me advice on our taxes this year.

I am confused about filing taxes this year.

1) Me and my wife have different visa status from different countries. I am an H-1B and she is on OPT.

2) We also have a kid who I have been claiming as a dependant(she is not)

3) I paid medical ($2600) and dependent care expenses ( $2100) pre taxed through my company. Of course I cannot claim them again.

Questions

1) Should we file married,jointly or married,separately. The reason I ask this because I pay medicare and social taxes. She does not. If we file jointly are we both treated the same or not ? ( pardon my ignorance).

2) We moved to new place after we had a kid. Can we claim them the expenses ?

Thanks a lot
Det

1) More than likely, filing jointly is the best way to file tax-wise. Filing jointly will NOT affect how her FICA (Social Security and Medicare) taxes are withheld; see link below:

Nonresident Spouse Treated as a Resident

2) You can only claim moving expenses if the move is related to a job change AND the move is at least 50 miles in distance.

I am curious about your child's status. WHY do you think you cannot claim your child as a dependent?

Dear Atlanta Tax Expert,

Thanks for your advice. I did claim my child as a dependent but my wife did not. We just did not want to be in a situation where we were withholding too much money and have to pay at the end to the IRS.

Det