Applying for US citenship and taxes issue

[ratedfelix]

I want to apply using the N-400 form. Ive been a green card holder for over 5 years, I was in college until 2011, and right now I am unemployed, there are some questions related to taxes. like if I have ever failed to file federal,state and local taxes or if do I owe. I live with my father and he puts me as a pendent, so I never have filed taxes before, so my question is if I can apply for the citizenship being a dependent? Thanks in advance for any help

 

[komaro]

The question asks if you ever failed to file a REQUIRED federal tax return. If you didn't have income or if it was very little then you were not required.
If you DID have significant income and your father put you as a dependent, you still had to file your own tax return (unless all income you had was investment - in this case you father could've claimed it on his tax return).

 

[jackpeterson]

An applicant for naturalization must be a permanent resident (green card holder) before filing.*Except for the certain U.S. military members and their dependents, naturalization can only be granted for the US Citizenship. So, you can apply for the citizenship being a dependent.

________________________
US Citizenship

 

[jafloresl]

The question asks if you ever failed to file a REQUIRED federal tax return. If you didn't have income or if it was very little then you were not required.
If you DID have significant income and your father put you as a dependent, you still had to file your own tax return (unless all income you had was investment - in this case you father could've claimed it on his tax return).

I'm in a kind of similar position.

My case is the following.

I received my residence since April 2010, now I can apply for the citizenship because have all the requirements but my question is that I have just started working on October 2012, reporting income and filled my first Tax form.
I did not filled any tax form before because was still working with my previous company in Mexico.
I lived in the border so travels to Mexico were very frequent, will this cause some kind of problems applying now for the citizenship?.

Thanks.

 

[komaro]

Your situation is different.

You must have filed tax returns for those years (http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Income-from-Abroad-is-Taxable) if you were considered a tax resident (resident alien in your case) even though you worked in Mexico. Since you had a GC, you were a resident alien and must've filed a 1040 (http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc851.html). You don't even need to satisfy the substantial presence test (>183 days in US) because you have a GC.