Forms I-864 and I-864a: Gross or net income for "My current individual annual income" and what about disability benefits?

Kalmma

New Member
Dear friends,

I have an approved I-130 for my mother and the case is at NVC. I need to fill out the I-864, but I do not know if in Part 6, Item 7 by "My current individual annual income" they mean my gross (before taxes, insurance premiums, etc.) or net (after taxes) income. For me, they are drastically different - e. g. last year (the one for which the data will be entered in 16a from the total income line in the tax transcript - the difference was about 8-9K).

I see a lot of different answers on the Internet and cannot figure it out - some people say "just multiply your hourly pay" or something like that, which would indicate "gross". But I also saw sources that talked about USCIS/NVC viewing "income" and "total taxable income" as the same thing for their purposes and that my "current individual annual income" and my husband's "current individual annual income" from his I-864a need to together "match" (at least approximately) what would eventually be in our taxes for this year. All these would indicate that it's the "net" income that's wanted, as my "gross" amount from the paychecks is never mentioned anywhere in the tax return/tax transcript.

Also, when my husband fills out his I-864a - how should he fill out part 3, if he is on the Social Security disability benefits (not SSI, so not means-tested)? And in the tax transcript there are two lines for his income - the "total" and the "taxable", which is about half of the total. Which one do we use for his "current individual annual income" and which one would go into the column for the total income for taxes in Part 4 for him?

I would be especially happy to see input from people who have finished the process (especially recently) and did/did not get RFEs to correct those specific items/fields, but of course, I will greatly appreciate any and all advice!

Thank you so very much in advance!
 
Aren't the wages reported on your tax return basically your gross wages?
Unfortunately, not in my case. Like I said before, my gross and net income are not shown as the same. Both my Line 9 and Line 11 in the Tax return are the same and that's what's shown on the Tax transcript as the Total income - they all represent the amount entered from the W-2's Box 1. The Gross Pay on my paychecks is always higher than that amount, though. I don't have the last paycheck from last year on hand right now, but as I look at my current paycheck, there are several columns after "Hours Worked". They are "Gross Pay", "Pre Tax Deductions", "Employee Taxes", "Post Tax Deductions" and "Net Pay". On that current paycheck in the year to date line the difference between the Gross Pay and the Net Pay is already more than 11K. And it will be the final check's "Net Pay" that will be shown in the W-2 for this year. That's why I was wondering.
 
I made a mistake in saying my husband’s taxable income is half of his total - it’s actually a lot less than that (like 3 digits for taxable vs. 5 digits for total). And I actually am not absolutely sure that insurance premiums are taken out of my gross pay when calculating the net - it might be just the taxes withheld by the company itself before the paycheck is sent to me and some other deductions like that.
 
they all represent the amount entered from the W-2's Box 1. The Gross Pay on my paychecks is always higher than that amount, though.
The only difference would be pre-tax deductions. Everything else (post-tax deductions, including tax withholding) would not reduce the taxable income.
 
The only difference would be pre-tax deductions. Everything else (post-tax deductions, including tax withholding) would not reduce the taxable income.
Thank you! I wasn’t sure. But what income goes into "current individual annual income"? The Gross Pay in total (before even the pre-tax deductions are subtracted) or the gross pay minus the pre-tax deductions?
 
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