Hi,

I am a US Citizen living in the US and I got legally married in May 2010 in India. My wife is an Indian Citizen. I am in the process of completing her immigration to the United States. She is expected to move to United States in March 2011.

My question is what filing status should I use on my 2010 tax return. Can I use married filing jointly although she was not living/working in United States during 2010?

Yes, you can file joint return for 2010. Both of you must report worldwide income. You will attach W-7 (ITIN application) with your tax return.

Agreed; you can file jointly with your irrespective of your spouse's physical location; she could be on Mars for all the IRS cares.

However, she must sign BOTH the tax return and the Form W-7, so you may want to wait until she gets her in March before you file. It would definitely be easier than mailing the paperwork to her in India for her signature, since mailing time often exceeds TWO weeks. Note that a tax return is a LEGAL document which MUST have original signatures from the taxpayers; faxed/scanned signature WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED by the IRS.

Email me at [email protected] if you need professional help filing the return.

Thank you for your answers! I appreciate the advice. I do have a follow up question on that. When I report her income from India on my tax return here in the states, do I need to convert the currency?

$1 is approximately Rs 44.00 right now.. based on that if her salary is Rs 300,000 a year, should I report her income as 300,000/44 = $6,818 ?

You can use one of THREE methods:

- You can convert using the AVERAGE conversion rate for 2010.

- You can convert using the conversion rate at the mid-point of 2010, which would be 1 July 2010.

- Or you can convert using the conversion rate on each day she actually got paid.

Whichever method is used, you MUST be consistent, in that if you convert her salary using one method, you must do ALL conversions of rupees-ot-USD using the SAME method.