I'm being really dumb about old US taxes: how do I file them?

Ok, so I've been a student in the UK since 2004, and mainly living off a combination of US student loans and my British husband's income.  I haven't had a paying job since 2006, and have not paid any taxes in the UK, so I haven't bothered filing taxes in the US since 2006.

However, it has occurred to me that perhaps I should go ahead and file for those years, even though I know that I don't owe anything and was not eligible for any tax credits that I know of.  I'm getting confused by the IRS website, though, and I'm not entirely sure what I am supposed to do in this situation.  Should I just print off some copies of the 1040EZ and fill them out with zeros, and send it in with a letter explaining that I have been unemployed?  Or do I need to do something more elaborate to demonstrate that my income, such as it is?  My husband has been giving me about 100 GBP per month for incidentals, but that's it.

I could attempt to drop into the tax advisory center when I am home for Xmas but that seems like an awkward time of year, and I don't want to waste a whole day of precious vacation time in a tax office!

Take this as you see fit but I did not file for the years I earned no income at all. We have a (US) family accountant who is excellent and never thought this was an issue. However, that is HIS opinion and I am sure there are some here who will disagree his advice.

There is a threshold below which you do not need to file. I don't know it off the top of my head, but I'm sure it's on the IRS website somewhere.

My wife works for H&R Block...as I am yelling across the living room TV - she is saying that married couple have to file after about $18K and married filing separately after about $3,650.  Here are some reasons to file if you are below the thresholds:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=105097,00.html [nofollow]

Good luck! 

Provided your husband is not a US citizen, you had the right to file as a single and not to report his income (other options available to you are outside of this post).
As a single person with zero income you were not required to file your US income tax return.
However, as soon as you start earning any amount (even below the $ 9,350 threshold), I suggest that you start filing considering the Statute of Limitation clause. Read more at https://www.taxesforexpats.com/expat-tax-advice/why-file.html.
You may also consider including your husband to your tax return for future years and file as married filing jointly. The pros and cons of this choice are described at https://www.taxesforexpats.com/expat-tax-advice/foreign-spouse.html.

Best,
www.taxesforexpats.com

Provided your husband is not a US citizen, you had the right to file as a single and not to report his income (other options available to you are outside of this post).

This is not correct.

If someone is married, they can file as married filing jointly or married filing separately.  If someone has a non-US citizen spouse, they also have the option to file as head of household (if they have children).

You cannot file as single, if you aren't in fact single.

If the OP wanted to exclude the non-US citizen's income, they would file as married filing separately.

Sara is correct.  You can never file as single if you are in fact married.

[You might additionally also file as Head of Household if you had children and were actually the Head of Household.]

Generally the original question appears not to require US filing because the income received and gifts received from a non-resident alien were probably below filing thresholds.

HOWEVER ManderW - if you had signature over joint foreign financial accounts which ever exceeded $10,000 in value you have a mandatory requirement to file FBARs. Civil penalties for non-wilful late filing fixed in statute start at $10,000 per violation (subject to mitigation in cases where reasonable cause for late filing exists) so this is often a much more worrying set of reporting then the income tax returns.

Yeah, I'm way below the income threshold, as it was literally zero, or a couple hundred pounds one year.  I've been living entirely off student loans until 2008.  Recently my husband has been giving me a small amount of money so that I have some to pay for incidentals like bus tickets, but that is only 100 pounds per month.  Our joint account only holds enough money to pay the utilities each month (we mainly set up the joint account as further evidence that we live together, etc. for ILR purposes).

We've only been married since 2007, so the last time I filed I was single.  I would of course file as married, filing separately in the future.  Since we have no plans to live in the US at this point, I don't plan to file jointly and report his income.

As I say, the main reason I would like to file returns is to fill in the record, so to speak, so that there isn't a gap in my returns.  But I don't know what to actually do (what forms to submit, where to send them, whether I need to include a cover letter that explains that I had no income, etc.).

Yes, your best choice would be to include a cover letter with your tax return stating that for the period from year x to year z you had no income. For this reason, it is preferable to file a paper return where you have more options for additional statements. The address to mail your return(provided you prepare it on your own) is:

Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
Austin, TX  73301-0215
USA

As far as filing status, my point was that as a single person with zero income you had the right not to file AND, upon being married, you had the right not report your nonresident husband income and still not to file.