Hi, I am an h4 visa holder living in guam with my husband (h1b) since aug2012. I haven't files for ITIN yet and due to my son's medical condition, I have to bring him to phils on mid Feb2013 and won't be back until mid Apr2013. My questions are: 1) can I file ITIN in the phils? 2) can he file MJF in guam even if I am in the phils? Thanks

The answer to BOTH questions is yes.

It is probably most advantageous for you to file jointly with your husband, filing Form 1040 with Form 1116 to claim the Foreign Tax Credit.  Form 1116 is required because you must claim ALL world-wide income earned in 2012, and the Form 1116 allows you to claim a credit for the income taxes paid to your home country. Note that you must WAIT until sometime in May before you can file this joint return.

You will need to apply for Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs) for you and your child by submitting Form W-7, and that process has undergone some radical procedural changes this past year.  Instead of the simple notarization process, the IRS now requires that your home country certify the photocopy of your passport as a true copy.  This is due to rampant fraud in the ITIN submission process.  The notaries simply cannot tell the difference between a fake passport and the genuine passport.

Since you are returning to the Philippines, you can get this certification done while there, getting the passport photocopies certified, and getting an apostille from the Philippine government certifying the authenticity of the passport. Going back to the Philippines actually works in your favor, because doing this through the mail from Guam could take up to a year.

The alternative is to mail in the actual passports themselves, something most of my clients are reluctant to do.

Thank you AtlantaTaxExpert for the answers. However I have a few more questions: 1) it states in the IRS website that I should file the W7 attached to the federal income tax return, how will I do that if my husband stays in Guam and we intend to file jointly 2) do you mean that both I and my husband need to declare our 2012 earnings in our previous company in the phils? 3) from what I have been reading, deadline for filing of tax returns is mid April, should we notify the IRS on our intention of filing in May instead? Sorry, I'm really confused since its our first time to do this. Thanks again

1) Sign the W-7 and tax return, then mail it to your husband, who signs the return and then mails both forms in.

2) Yes.

3) File Form 4868 to request an extension to 15 Oct 2013; approval is automatic.