I have tax questions. Please help

Somewhere back in the posts I think you mentioned MFJ....did your tax preparer count your wife's income? For MFJ, it must be included.

Also, the IRS changed the ITIN requirements. Someone correct me, but as I read it, an ITIN is required for a spouse of a US Citizen or resident alien. Putting 'NRA" or 'ITIN Applied For' is no longer allowed.

It's still allowed for MFS as far as I'm aware.

Again, the 'tax folks' might correct me, but according to what I've just read, an ITIN is now required for MFS and claiming an exemption for the NRA spouse.

2. Choose to treat spouse as nonresident alien for tax purposes.

If you decide you don't want to include your NRA spouse's income on your U.S. tax return, you generally will have to use the filing status of "married, separate". However, if your spouse has no income from sources within the U.S. and is not claimed as a dependent of another U.S. taxpayer, you can claim an exemption for your NRA spouse. You need to be sure to obtain a Individual Taxpayer Identification number for your spouse before filing the return (go to www.irs.gov and see the instructions for Form W-7).

Under the "who needs an ITIN" info from the IRS, it specifically says the NRA spouse of a US Citizen.

That sounds like it's only needed if you want to claim your spouse as an exemption. If you don't, you can still just put NRA.

That sounds like it's only needed if you want to claim your spouse as an exemption. If you don't, you can still just put NRA.

That is how I read it which is why I calculated it both ways above as a test on my last tax return.  Seems sensible that if you want to claim a tax break for a dependent that the person should be registered with a SS number or ITIN.  Back in the 80's before my wife had any income (no green card) we were able to get a SS card, stamped "Not Eligible For Work", but it did mean that she was listed as a dependent on my returns.

Thank you all for giving your inputs. I just spoke to this CPA firm who does most of the law enforcement officers taxes in my area and I was told that filing from abroad is not complicated. When asked about whether to file MFJ or MFS? I was told that for refund purposes it is best to do MFJ but you will need an ITIN for that and you don't have to file MFJ every year. And any year you do MFJ you will need to use the ITIN number. And she told me that if i do MFS then no ITIN is required. Since they were extremely busy at the moment she told me that a 45 mins. Consultation would cost me $300. Anyway i didn't know in order to file MFJ id have to put my wife's income on my taxes. Please note my wife's a born Uk citizen who has never worked in the US or has any assets in the US. And I was thinking once in England we'll go to the London Attaché and apply for an ITIN in person.

Thanks for the follow-up smog_tech.  Good luck going forward, it sounds like you are on the right track.

Thanks for the follow-up smog_tech.  Good luck going forward, it sounds like you are on the right track.

Your welcome Durhamlad and infact im thankful for everyone's tips. I'm aware of at least something now. Again thank you all.

When asked about whether to file MFJ or MFS? I was told that for refund purposes it is best to do MFJ but you will need an ITIN for that and you don't have to file MFJ every year. And any year you do MFJ you will need to use the ITIN number. And she told me that if i do MFS then no ITIN is required.

Oops, she may have misled you again.

You can chose MFJ, but be aware of the following for electing to file MFS in a following year:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf
Pages 6 and 7.

Oops, she may have misled you again.

You can chose MFJ, but be aware of the following for electing to file MFS in a following year:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf
Pages 6 and 7.

This x 1,000,000.

This was my point in my previous post, sorry if that wasn't clear

This x 1,000,000.

This was my point in my previous post, sorry if that wasn't clear

Your post was very clear, cheesebiscuit. I suspect the OP was undergoing information overload at the time and may have missed its significance. It doesn't help when a tax adviser in the US tells them something different. In spite of the tax advisers' comment "that filing from abroad is not complicated" (which, in the right circumstances, it isn't), perhaps the adviser would benefit from a refresher course in international returns.

Your post was very clear, cheesebiscuit. I suspect the OP was undergoing information overload at the time and may have missed its significance. It doesn't help when a tax adviser in the US tells them something different. In spite of the tax advisers' comment "that filing from abroad is not complicated" (which, in the right circumstances, it isn't), perhaps the adviser would benefit from a refresher course in international returns.

Thanks I'm by no means a tax expert, but I am a planner, so I read into it in quite a lot of detail when we first filed taxes after our marriage, although not complicated exactly, there are a lot of options you can choose, some of which have unexpected/far reaching consequences.
When we originally chose to do MFS, we could have really done with the MFJ discounts and refund, but now we've gone through a change in circumstances, that would have been absolutely disastrous and resulted in much higher payment of tax in the US than we already pay.
We're also not eligible for Head of Household status as we have no dependents living with us.
Now we have that all sorted our tax return is fairly simple, the first time, just required some fairly simple, but detailed reading in order to get it right.

Somewhere back in the posts I think you mentioned MFJ....did your tax preparer count your wife's income? For MFJ, it must be included.

Also, the IRS changed the ITIN requirements. Someone correct me, but as I read it, an ITIN is required for a spouse of a US Citizen or resident alien. Putting 'NRA" or 'ITIN Applied For' is no longer allowed.

You my friend were 100% correct. I spoke to IRS yesterday and came to know that one must claim income of their NRA spouse if an American citizen or legal resident is filing 'MFJ' and with that came another shock. When you file 'MFJ' then your spouse who is abroad and has NO assets in the US still has to file 'FBAR' if his or her accounts reach $10k in a calendar year. Beacuse of the fact they were claimed on an American fed tax by their spouse. So now I'm thinking of filing 'MFS' so my wife doesn't have to put up wih this headache.

Somewhere back in the posts I think you mentioned MFJ....did your tax preparer count your wife's income? For MFJ, it must be included.

Also, the IRS changed the ITIN requirements. Someone correct me, but as I read it, an ITIN is required for a spouse of a US Citizen or resident alien. Putting 'NRA" or 'ITIN Applied For' is no longer allowed.

And from what i understood while speaking to a rep in 'tax law' at the irs call center, One can still put NRA.

You my friend were 100% correct. I spoke to IRS yesterday and came to know that one must claim income of their NRA spouse if an American citizen or legal resident is filing 'MFJ' and with that came another shock. When you file 'MFJ' then your spouse who is abroad and has NO assets in the US still has to file 'FBAR' if his or her accounts reach $10k in a calendar year. Beacuse of the fact they were claimed on an American fed tax by their spouse. So now I'm thinking of filing 'MFS' so my wife doesn't have to put up wih this headache.

I dont mean to cause confusion. I will give more detail about the above comment.
I was told if I file 'MFJ' then when my account/s reach $10k where both spouses have authority over the account/s then the American citizen will file the FBAR and his/her spouse who is an 'NRA' will be counted on that. But if the spouse of USC who filed 'MFJ' has account(s) of her own on which the USac has no authority then the 'NRA' spouse will be liable to file his/her own separate FBAR.