First Time Filing US Income tax with UK Wife

Probably already asked and answered elsewhere on this forum, but I can't seem to find necessary information.
I'm a USC, recently moved to Scotland on a spouse vise - wife is a UKC with a US ITIN.
I have US income from 2017 to report, no UK income.
Wife has minimal UK income (pension only), no US income.
We (wife) have 2017 income tax (minor), council taxes, etc, that would be a help on my/our deductions.
Pretty basic questions: Do I file single or jointly (married or separately)?
How do we translate non-IRS information (no W-2's, no 1099's, etc) into acceptable submissions for the IRS?
UK tax year is 1-Apr to 31-Mar - do I use the data from her tax statements ending in April of the US tax year or do I try to calculate actual income/taxes for the calendar year?

UK tax year is April 6th - April 5th. 

Has your wife ever had a green card? Have you ever both elected in any previous year to file joint US income tax returns?

To answer your question should you end up filing to report UK income then you would use substitute forms to report foreign earned income and pensions for which you have no W2 or 1099-R. I report my UK pensions using substitute 1099-R’s (form 4852 is used for both 1099 and W2).

I'm in a similar boat. I'm recently married (Sept2017) and I worked last year though in both UK (Dec2017) and US (before marriage).

I noticed you said your wife has a ITIN...should I get my husband this? I'm confused, how would this benefit us? Do I report jointly or separately? The IRS website is really doing my head in...its really confusing...

Probably already asked and answered elsewhere on this forum, but I can't seem to find necessary information.
I'm a USC, recently moved to Scotland on a spouse vise - wife is a UKC with a US ITIN.
I have US income from 2017 to report, no UK income.
Wife has minimal UK income (pension only), no US income.
We (wife) have 2017 income tax (minor), council taxes, etc, that would be a help on my/our deductions.
Pretty basic questions: Do I file single or jointly (married or separately)?
How do we translate non-IRS information (no W-2's, no 1099's, etc) into acceptable submissions for the IRS?
UK tax year is 1-Apr to 31-Mar - do I use the data from her tax statements ending in April of the US tax year or do I try to calculate actual income/taxes for the calendar year?

I noticed you said your wife has a ITIN...should I get my husband this? I'm confused, how would this benefit us? Do I report jointly or separately? The IRS website is really doing my head in...its really confusing...

An ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Number) is needed if your husband is filing in the US. We did this last year as I was in the US full time but married. Since wife’s income was so small it made sense for us to file jointly for 2016. Trying to decide what to do for 2017.



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Thanks Durhamlad.


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Has your wife ever had a green card? Have you ever both elected in any previous year to file joint US income tax returns?

No, she’s never had a Green Card. For tax year 2016 we filed jointly.


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No, she’s never had a Green Card. For tax year 2016 we filed jointly.


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You only elected in 2016 to file jointly because you both elected to do so. Now that election has been made you are required to file jointly for all future years, unless one of you revokes the election; in which case you could never elect to file jointly again.

Consequently, you will both file reporting worldwide income and both file FBARs.