Dear Expert,

I have the question about the $ 3300 deduction for the dependent. I got married in December 2006. My wife came to US in 2007.

I am using turbo tax to file my income tax returns. It guided me through a set of questions like
1) Was your status married on 31 December 2006.
2) What was my resident status. ( The option I selected was, "One of us was a resident alien while the wife was non-resident alien") as I was in US and my wife was in India.

Based on these questions it selected my tax filing status as MARRIED FILING Separately.
I also qualify for exemption of my wife for no earnings.

When I went through the full filing turbo tax shows me standard deductions of $ 6600($3300 for myself and $3300 for my wife).

My question is
1) As I got married in December and my wife came to US only in 2007 is this $3300 deduction OK. Or should I fill the returns as unmarried. (Note: Turbo tax decided I should use MARRIED FILING Separately based on questions.


Thanking you,
With best regards
Prasanna

Prasanna:

You cannot claim your wife as a dependent because she was NOT in the U.S. at all in 2006.

However (assuming you are under an H-1 or H-1B visa), you CAN file jointly with your wife and choose for you BOTH to be treated as resident aliens for all of 2006. When filing jointly, the physical location of your wife is irrelevant.

Filing jointly results not only in personal exemptions of $6,600 ($3.300 for each one of you), but also in a DOUBLE standard deduction of $10,300.