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Topic: Anything I am missing?  (Read 982 times)

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Anything I am missing?
« on: February 17, 2016, 11:29:20 AM »
Trying to get the tax stuff together, wondering before I crank up TurboTax if I am missing anything.

Background- We are both retired. Ages 58 (me, USA), 55 wife (UK). Bought a home/car etc. here June 2015. Wife still currently holds a US Green Card.

Checklist
1. FATCA- form 8938. Send in with tax forms. We had around £300K at one time in our checking account here to buy the house.
2. FBAR- do online?
3. Form 1099-R for my pension payments
4. Proof of Health Insurance
5. Vanguard fund sales. I usually just let TurboTax suck the info directly from Vanguard. I am assuming I will likely owe a bit on what was sold. Ran off the forms from the site....I am an idiot and am not sure of anything.
6. Being in the UK now, I have to mail the taxes in? I have until June to do it don't I? I plan on doing them soon though.
7. The harder question.
     -Should I keep my wife on my taxes for a while yet? I get a higher threshold for what I
      can earn in a year with her on my taxes. Last year without her (married filing separately) I 
      was going to owe about $18. I filed married/jointly and got over $800 back.
     -She won't have any money coming in for 5 more years.
     -Are there any consequences (tax-wise) for my wife still having her Green Card? Looking
      online it indicates it may already be "invalid" since we have moved to the UK with no
      intention of returning.   
Fred


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Re: Anything I am missing?
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2016, 08:41:50 PM »
A quick question to add to your list.

Do you need to file for that extension or simply really on the fact that when the return is filed it shows that you were resident in the UK for most of the year?

ETA
I don't there is any other option but to FBAR on-line. (FinCEN)
« Last Edit: February 17, 2016, 08:42:57 PM by durhamlad »
Dual USC/UKC living in the UK since May 2016


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Re: Anything I am missing?
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2016, 07:47:30 AM »
Others will more knowledge will jump in with suggestions/corrections.

FBAR/FinCen is only on-line (that started a couple of years ago).

There are ways of filing your tax return electronically in specific cases. In some instances, required forms are not part of an electronic filing. We filed electronically 3 years ago, but had to mail the return for the past 2 tax years.

AFAIK, since your wife still has a green card, a tax return is required for 2015 at the very least, as she was resident for part of that tax year and assuming she had taxable income. Even if she had no income, there is no reason for NOT filing MFJ.

In future years, you can file MFS, but claim an exemption for your wife if she has no US taxable income.

As you are UK resident, you get an automatic extension. BUT - any tax due must still be paid by the normal April deadline. If you moved in June 2015, then you also need to think about waiting until you meet the physical presence test to claim FTC.
Married December 1992 (my 'old flame' whom I first met in the mid-70s)
1st move to UK - 1993 (Letter of Consent granted at British Embassy in Washington DC)
ILR - 1994 (1 year later - no fee way back then!)
Back to US in 2000
Returned to UK July 2011 (Spousal Visa/KOL endorsement)
ILR - September 2011
Application for naturalization submitted July 2014
Approval received 15-10-14; ceremony scheduled for 10 November!
Passport arrived 25 November 2014. Finally done!


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Re: Anything I am missing?
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2016, 08:26:05 AM »

There are ways of filing your tax return electronically in specific cases. In some instances, required forms are not part of an electronic filing. We filed electronically 3 years ago, but had to mail the return for the past 2 tax years.
Did you use TurboTax or something similar? Will it pop up with something saying that I can file electronically or have to mail?

AFAIK, since your wife still has a green card, a tax return is required for 2015 at the very least, as she was resident for part of that tax year and assuming she had taxable income. Even if she had no income, there is no reason for NOT filing MFJ.
I was under the impression from a discussion on this site a year or so ago that I could take my wife off whenever I wanted.....but would have to put in a letter stating that was what I wanted.....and then it would be permanent. But....the question is whether it is worth doing. At some point in the future, my wife will start getting several small pensions (first one in 4 years, about £1200 a year).

In future years, you can file MFS, but claim an exemption for your wife if she has no US taxable income.
So I can always claim her? Even in the future if I go MFS? She has no (and never had) US taxable income other than her name is on our checking account in the US.

As you are UK resident, you get an automatic extension. BUT - any tax due must still be paid by the normal April deadline. If you moved in June 2015, then you also need to think about waiting until you meet the physical presence test to claim FTC.
I wouldn't have thought FTC would come up at all this year since it is our first year back and haven't done anything with UK taxes yet. We got back 16 April 2015.

Mostly I am wondering if I was missing something important off my checklist before I sit down and start plugging things into TurboTax. Now I need to figure which version to use this year. And.....as I was getting ready to head out the door for a walk....it hit me that I hadn't put down the UK bank account interest. Not much, but....
« Last Edit: February 18, 2016, 08:41:47 AM by F4mandolin »
Fred


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