Hello,

I am a Resident Alient for tax purposes. My wife lived with me in the US from June 2017 - January 2018 so she satisfies the substantial presence test for the tax year 2017. She didn't have any income in the US or abroad during the tax year 2017. I got married in May 2017 and changed my tax status from single to married (joint) thus causing a substantial reduction in my tax.

I just found out that in order to be able to file a tax I need to file for her ITIN for which I need to produce her passport as a proof and visit one of the tax centers with her in person. Now since she is abroad and doesn't plan to come back anytime soon is it still possible for me to be able to file my tax return as joint and married?

If that is not possible can I file as married but single for tax purpose or do I have any other options?

Please advise.


Thanks.

You have multiple options; see below:

If you want my professional help, email me at the address in my profile.

You will need to apply for an Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) for your wife by submitting Form W-7, and that process underwent some radical procedural changes in 2013. 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.

FIRST ALTERNATIVE: For Indian clients, this certification can be done by the Indian embassy in Washington, D.C. or at one of the consulates in San Francisco, Chicago, Houston or New York. Assuming you do NOT want to drive there, you need to call the nearest consulate and arrange to have this process done via the mail.

SECOND ALTERNATIVE: The IRS also has Tax Assistance Centers through which you may be able to have the passport verified as genuine, then submit the tax return and Form W-7 IN PERSON to be forwarded to the ITIN Processing Center in Austin, Texas for processing, without having to get the photocopies certified by your home country consulate.

You go to the TAC with your wife and/or children, her passport, the SIGNED Forms W-7, and the completed and SIGNED tax return with your W-2s

The IRS official verifies the passports, asks a few questions, completes the certification paperwork, checks the Forms W-7 and tax return, then returns the passports with a receipt for the tax return and Forms W-7, which is sent to Austin, Texas for processing.

You leave the TAC with your wife and/or family, the passports and a receipt for the Forms W-7 and the tax return.

You would get the ITIN about six weeks after you left the TAC.

The tax returns are NOT processed at Austin, Texas, but rather forwarded to the regional IRS centers for processing, so the refund will come about one month AFTER you get the ITIN letters.

The list of the TACs are at the link below:

http://www.irs.gov/uac/TAC-Locations-Where-In-Person-Document-Verification-is-Provided[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

Note that Tax Assistance Centers now take appointments; you need to call the ones near you to determine if any of them can give you an appointment. It sure beats waiting in line all day.

THIRD ALTERNATIVE. I am a Certifying Acceptance Agent, and I can certify the passport if the TACs are not close.

You would mail the passport and the SIGNED Form W-7 and SIGNED tax return to me. I would contact you via SKYPE, conduct a brief interview with your spouse, certify the passport, attach the certification to the SIGNED W-7 and sign both documents. I would also sign the tax return, then paperclip the W-7 with certification to the tax return, and then mail them to the IRS ITIN Processing Center in Austin, Texas.

The passport I would mail BACK to you via tracked PRIORITY MAIL, so the passport would be out of your possession for about a week.

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

If the IRS gets the passport, they hold it for about THREE months.

Thanks for the detailed reply. Since she is in India now and won't be returning anytime soon, only option 1 sounds like it could work.

Is it possible to file my tax return as married but filing separately in my case? Please let me know.

Actually, the better option would be using a CAA, preferably MY CAA, service. The interview can be conducted using SKYPE.

It will take awhile, because she will have to download the Form W-7 and completed tax return from a shared secure website, SIGN them, mail them and her passport to you so YOU can sign the tax return, then YOU mail the signed forms and passports to me so I can inspect the passport. I would then send the passport back to her using an overseas courier service.

Another alternative not mentioned is a process by which she can go to the U.S. embassy in Mumbai or a U.S. consulate office and, for a small fee, have her passport inspected by an embassy/consulate official, after which they will produce paperwork that certifies that a clear color photocopy of her passport picture page is a "TRUE copy of an authentic Indian passport."

The only downside is the fact that the embassy/consulate personnel do not always do it right, so there are some rejections of such submissions.

To date, I have had a 100% success rate in applying for ITINs as a CAA.

And, yes, you CAN file Married Filing Separately, but you will pay a MUCH higher tax rate filing that way.

If you want details and fees, email me at the email address in my profile.

Thanks for the response once again. Just one more question - If I file as married filing separately then in order to claim her as an exemption I will need to file for her ITIN, W-7?

If I don't claim her as an exemption I can file my return without applying for ITIN, W-7, is that correct?

Yes, to claim her exemption, you need to get her an ITIN.

No exemption, you can file without the ITIN.

Model the rteurn BOTH ways. When you see the difference in your refund, you will see that it IS worth the time and effort to get her an ITIN.

Thanks again, I have sent you an email.

I see it and will answer it shortly