Calculating income on I-864 for Married filing joint return

manishpai

Registered Users (C)
I have a question about counting the income when filling the Form I-864 when a married couple files joint income tax returns.

Myself and my wife are U.S. citizens. Including two minor kids, our current household size is 4. No previous sponsor obligations.

I have simultenously filed I-130 for my 2 siblings: family of 4 and 5. My wife has simultenously filed I-130 for her 4 siblings: family of 4, 4, 4 and 2.

Both I and my wife own a business, S-corporation. TX is a community property state (everything 50/50) but in S-corporation, I own 99% and my wife 1%. My W-2 salary is $140,000/year and my wife's $36,000 (both from same business).
Lets assume the company's net income is $300,000.
Therefore, I get K-1 for $297,000 and my wife for $3,000.I and my wife have several joint or separate bank accounts and lets say my interest income is $25,000 and hers is $20,000.

In question 23, what do I enter my individual income: Is it $140,000 salary + $297,000 from business + $25,000 from interest?
Or do I combine the income of both of us as per gross income on tax return?
The same question for my wife.

How do we fill question 24? Do I additionally enter my wife's income when I am sponsor and vice versa?

Question 25 asks the income on federal tax return. That is obviously combined income. If I enter only my income (to the extent I can separate), in Q 23, that will be different from the amount here.

In that case, does the spouse need to fill I-864A form?

My own income (if that is something I can even say in this case) seems sufficient to sponsor all my sibling families. Does my wife still need to fill I-864A for my siblings?

My wife's income (if even possible to separate) does not seem sufficient to sponsor all her sibling families. Do I need to fill I-864A for her siblings?
 
Form I-864 you would mark 22 a & b. Write your combined total income of 462,000.00 on line 23. Same amount flows to line 24. On line 24 b write your wife's name, income and line 24 c would be your family's combined income. Mark 24 d and attach I-864A on your wife's behalf. Follow same process for your wife's filed cases, i.e. her siblings, wherever it says your income, it would be her income and you would then fill out I-864A. Preferably sent IRS issued individual tax return transcripts along with all w2's, 1099's etc, whichever is applicable
 
I believe that if I am specifiying the "my" income on line 23, and if that is enough to sponsor all my side of relatives, we should not need to put my wife's income on line 24b and she should not need to complete form I-864A. Is my understanding correct? I am just trying to minimize the paperwork.

I believe that I would still need to put the combined income of myself and my wife on line 25. That would be different from income on line 23. Should we attach a separate work sheet that shows my income on side and my wife's on another side to show we are coming up with all these numbers? Or would the transcritpt already show something like that?

Instructions for line 24 says
Take your annual individual income from line 23 andenter it on line 24a. If this amount is greater than 125 percent(or 100 percent if you are on active duty in the U.S. military and sponsoring your spouse or child) of the Federal Poverty Guidelines for your household size from line 21h, you do not need to include any household member's income.
 
I-864's filed by you might not require your wife's income to make you eligible for I-864 poverty guidelines, but you might have to take this approach is cases where your wife has filed I-864's, and remember each seperate I-864 will go for every I-130. In your case, attach seperate sheet about non-inclusion of your wife's income since your income meets or exceeds required poverty guidelines.
 
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