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papajones · Jan 19, 2007, 04:54 AM

Hi,

My wife is on H1 b visa and we arrived in USA in last dec 2005,she started working in jan 2006
But currently she has not filed her taxes as per employer ,her employer is not deducting any taxes or fica from her salary .now how can I filed taxes for her for 2006 and is there any penalty that I have to pay of being late.and what taxes should we have to pay.after paying taxes can she apply for tax return.
I will very thankful if someone can help me out of this.

AtlantaTaxExpert · Jan 19, 2007, 11:59 AM

If she was H-1B on 31 Dec 2005 and was H-1B for ALL of 2006, you and she should file jointly as resident aliens, filing Form 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ.

Now, if the employer failed to withhold FICA taxes and she received a W-2, she has nothing to worry about. It is the employer's responsibility to pay FICA taxes and withhold the employee's part of these taxes from the employee's paycheck. If the employer fails to do so, the IRS will go after the employer, NOT the employee.

I suspect that, since these taxes were not withheld, your wife is being treated as an independent contractor. If she gets a Form 1099-MISC (instead of a W-2), you will KNOW that she is being treated as an independent contractor. In this case, you and she must file Form 1040 with a Schedule C (to document the self-employment income and any expenses incurred while doing the contract work) and Schedule SE (to calculate the self-employment tax, which is the self-employed equivalent to the FICA taxes). The SE tax rate is 15.3%.

If she gets a Form 1099-MISC, you should get professional tax help. Do not try to file this return yourself. If you need my help, contact me at [email protected], but be sure to get some tax professional's help. You will more than make up any fee charged by what the pro will save you in taxes, trust me!