I've been doing my taxes myself ever since coming to the UK. Because I contribute to a Roth IRA, I would always take the foreign tax credit rather than the income exclusion.
Cut to mid-2017, when I got married. I wanted to keep my (foreign) spouse from having to deal with US tax returns, so I went as married filing separately last year. Unfortunately, I didn't realise that the rules for Roths mean you can't contribute if you make more than $10K and are married filing separately (what the heck is the reasoning behind that anyway?). So I did contribute for 2017 and 2018. I only found out the mistake when reviewing my 2018 return before sending it.
Now I'm not sure what to do. I guess I wasn't supposed to contribute to the Roth, but am I able to fix it or amend my return? Can I file jointly but still have my spouse as a non-resident alien? The issue is that he has a stocks ISA here with tracker funds in it, which I understand would be regarded as a foreign trust and expose him to a big tax liability. That's the whole reason I went this stupid IRA route in the first place rather than getting an ISA myself.
Honestly part of me just wants to rant about this ridiculous, screwed-up, unfair system, but if anyone has thoughts on what to do in my situation I'd be super grateful. I'm trying to find an expat tax preparer to help, but was wondering if anyone had any initial advice? I know my husband is also taxed more here than he would be in the States, for example, but I don't know if that covers what taxes would be on his small ISA stocks, or if there's a way I can sort out the IRA issue without dragging him into this.
