Tax Return Question

M

musicaa

Registered Users (C)
Hello everyone,

i have an urgent question, my husband (US citizen) is about to file his Tax Return. My I-130 was approved and now I'm in the middle of my pending I-485 application and I-765.

My question is, does he need to change his status from married to single when he files his Tax Return?
I have a SSN, which says "VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION". I got the SSN when I came over here as an Au-Pair, 8 years ago.
I've been working with that SSN and filed taxes before, which I know is not allowed.

Can anyone help me, I dont want him (us) to in trouble.

Thank you so much.
 
musicaa said:
My question is, does he need to change his status from married to single when he files his Tax Return?
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Depends on what his marital status was last year. See the IRS instructions. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p501/ar02.html#en_US_2010_publink1000220721

I have a SSN, which says "VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION". I got the SSN when I came over here as an Au-Pair, 8 years ago.
I've been working with that SSN and filed taxes before, which I know is not allowed.
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You will keep using that same SSN including the employment restriction wording until you get the green card. You should not have worked after overstaying your visa, but if you worked when overstaying, filing taxes with that same old SSN was the right thing to do.

After obtaining the green card, you can visit a Social Security office to apply for a SS card without the restriction wording (and with your new name, if you changed your name with marriage), but the new card will have the same number.
 
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musicaa said:
he filed Single last year. We got married in July 2010.
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My tax preparer advised us to filed the correct way to avoid getting in to legal trouble. She said that if you are married and you file single there may be problems when they see your tax returns and ask you to ammend them. Causing them to put your case on hold.
We got married in Nov. of last year. We would have received a larger tax return if I would have been excluded from the tax return. :(
 
Married filing separately, or married filing jointly.

Since you are applying for a marriage-based green card, married filing jointly would look better to the USCIS interviewer (but if you have a reasonable explanation, such as saving hundreds of dollars by filing separately instead of jointly, separately is acceptable).
 
Ok last question, if we file jointly, is whatever I made last year going to show up? (I did work last yeat, even if I was not allowed to work).
 
musicaa said:
Ok last question, if we file jointly, is whatever I made last year going to show up? (I did work last yeat, even if I was not allowed to work).
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Did you do your taxes with your ITIN number? If you did then it will show up.
 
I filled my taxes with my SSN, never had any problems with that. Just dont want to get in trouble, when we file "married jointly" and my history comes up, because I worked unauthorized and filed taxes.
 
If you can file taxes with him(jointly) that would be good. I know some people that have worked without EAD and filed taxes without any problems. Working without authorization is forgiven by USCIS if you are an immediate relative to a US citizen. This is as long as you paid taxes when you got paid.
 
musicaa said:
Ok last question, if we file jointly, is whatever I made last year going to show up? (I did work last yeat, even if I was not allowed to work).
Click to expand...

If you file taxes jointly, you should report both your income and your spouse's income on the joint return.

Since you are adjusting status based on marriage to a US citizen, the unauthorized employment will be forgiven as far as immigration penalties are concerned. And because you paid taxes using your own SSN, you won't have the IRS or other government agencies chasing you for tax evasion or identity theft.
 
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