JoeF and others!! Can somebody answer these important TAX questions please...

L

Led Zeppelin

Registered Users (C)
Can somebody answers these questions. It helps a lot of us who has similar problems and doubts. Thanks in advance and appreciate your time.


1) If a person is out of country for six months and did not earn any income outside of the US and most of the remaining time in
US is out of job, and his whole income per year is a meagre two to three thousand dollars, still does he has to file the tax returns? Does this very low income can be a question factor at Citizenship interview?

2) What if a person does not earn any income at all for two years either in US or outside (let say he is outside US on re-entry permit), does he has to still file tax returns? Can a person file tax return with zero income or he has to? Is it compulsary for everybody to file tax return every year even though they do not have single dollar income. How does this affect citizenship?

3) How a person can maintain residence or file tax returns if he is out of the country for two years?

4) Can a person file current year tax return two years later if he is out of the country. Will this be a serious factor at Citizeship interview?

5) Does filing tax returns with zero income, if they allowed, does make any sense? Do they have still any meaning, other than one has to compulsorily file the return even with zero income.

6) If a person stays less than few months in a year in US, does he has to file "Nonresident" or "Resident" tax returns? To file resident tax return, a person should stay in US more than six months. Right? But Citizenship brochure says one must file Resident tax return.

7) What is IRS Form 1722. What does it mean and why it needed?
Where to download the form and how to file it?

8) Which IRS form to use to file world wide income, if anyone earned income outside usa and want to show with income earned in the usa. What precations to take?

9) What is 4year and 1 month residency to apply for Citizenship. How this works and can anybody use this to get citizenship a little bit earlier?


Thanks.
 
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1. If you are planning to apply for naturalization, you should file your tax return with the IRS regardless of how much your income is. I checked this with an IRS agent and an immigration attorney this year. I do not think that the amount of income you delcare in your tax return forms (as long as it is truthful) has any bearing on your naturalization application.

2. Regardless of where a US permanent resident is in the world and where he/she derives his/her income, s/he should always file his/her tax return to the IRS. Failure to file a tax return could cause potential problem in your naturalization application.

3. Not exactly sure what you mean. You can just download the forms from the internet, fill it up, and send them in to the IRS. Alternatively, you can hire an accountant to take care of it for you.

4. I am not sure about this as I am not an accountant. However, I suspect that you might be able to do so. Hopefully, someone else would be able to answer this.

5. Technically speaking, you are not required to file your tax return if it is below a certain amount. However, since you are looking to apply for naturalization, my suggestion is to file your tax return anyway, regardless of your income level.

6.. To be safe, I believe that you should always file as a resident.

7. It is a form from the IRS stating your tax returns for the past X years. You can just call the IRS (1-800-829-1040) and request for that letter. They should be able to fax or mail that to you as long as you have been dutiful in filing your taxes. Have all your tax returns handy when you call because they'll most probably be asking you a lot of questions from your previous tax returns, just to make sure that you are who you say you are.

8. You can just the regular 1040 form, and just delcare your foreign income there. I used an accountant to take care of that for me, so I'm not exactly sure which forms he used. If it's just dividends or interest from bank accounts, then you can delcare that in Schedule A or B (can't remember which).

9. If you have been out of the country for more than a year, then you have broken your continuous residency. As such, you would need to wait for 4 years and 1 day after your return before you can file for your naturalization, unless you were approved for a N-470 (Application to Preserve Residence for Naturalization Purposes) prior to your trip.


By the way, there are other residency requirements that you need to meet before you can file for your naturalization. For instance, if you got your green card from employment, you would need to have spent 2.5 years out of the last 5 years in the US. Also, any trips longer than 6 months outside the US could cause potential problems. Traveling back to the US for a couple of weeks every 5-6 months in an attempt to "maintain your green card" wouldn't cut it for BCIS.

Good luck.
 
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gabby2001 and JoeF:

Thanks for your time in answering these questions. I have to find
is it allowed to file prevous year tax returns, if one is out of country for two years on re-entry permit. Not sure if this will be any bad remark.

Thanks.
 
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