[davidj2095]

I am a U.S. citizen and have a Philippine spouse whom is not a U.S. citizen. I am in the active duty military serving in Japan. We married Feb of 2013 and we live together in Japan on a military base since July 2013. She has two children and they both live with us as well.

When I file taxes this year I know to attach a W-7 for my spouse and each stepchild to my tax return and mail it to the Austin TX IRS address, however can I claim the step children for tax credits or deductions. Basically anything that would benefit my tax returns? If not can I get a tax break or benefits for my wife whom does not earn any income?

Thanks in advance for the help!

-David

[smearcase]

This may help. I found it but I haven't tried it.
Who Can I Claim as a Dependent?

[ScottGem]

If you file a joint return, then I would say yes.

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

For sure, you can file jointly with your wife, but you CANNOT claim her children as dependents unless they have Social Security Numbers. Have you inquired about getting the children and your wife SSNs with JAG??

Getting the children ITINs would be a waste of time, because you cannot claim them as dependents with ITINs unless they are physically located in the United States.

Assuming SSNs are NOT allowed, 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 her home country certify the photocopy of her 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 your wife, this certification can be done by the Philippine embassy in Tokyo. Assuming you do NOT want to drive there, you need to call the embassy and arrange to have this process done via the mail. This process, done via mail, can take up to three months to complete. Your wife possibly will have to travel to the embassy.

SECOND ALTERNATIVE: Contact your local JAG and ask if they have been authorized by the IRS to certify passports as authentic. One of the JAG officers may be a CAA.THIRD ALTERNATIVE. I am a Certifying Acceptance Agent (CAA), and I can certify the passport but ONLY for your wife.

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 international FEDEX, so the passport would be out of your possession for about three weeks.

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.