Will I get a RFE - please help!

F

feifeifei

Registered Users (C)
Hi all,

I have a question about the sponsor's income. My husband co-founded a company with his partner. Yes. For tax filing reason, he didn't file his actual income to IRS. Most of his salary was paid in cash, without showing on his W2.
In his W2s for 2006-2009, only 2007 he has the income showed higher than minimum requirement. In 2006, we used his appraisal of diamond. He owes a jewelry store together with his mother. In 2008, he reported our family/household tax, instead of his own. My salary during my intern is very high, so the total tax was far beyond the minimum.

In addition, we also attached one copy of our joint account which showed more than 10K savings.

Based on our situation, do you guys think we will get any RFE? If so, what type of documents we should prepare now.

As a note, my husband is running his own company all the time. He just didn't file as much tax as he should Our marriage is a true marriage.

I will be grateful if you guys and enlighten us with some thoughts.

-fei
 
Your husband is guilty of tax evasion; if you signed a joint income tax return, you are guilty as well.

You need to get an attorney as your tax problems are far bigger than your immigration issues. The IRS is a whole lot harder to deal with than any of the immigration agencies; they can send people to prison.
 
How much was the incom in the last tax return? How many people are there in the return? How many else the dependant people that had he sponsored before? Plug the numbers into i-864p and see the answer.
 
Acr:

It was 22,500 USD. At least from the document he didn't commit any tax evasion, because he didn't report such income. As a co-owner, you have many more ways to have supplementary income. In 2008, since we were married, so the return include both me and him. We both have incomes.
He never sponsored anyone before. We both repoted tax as independant, rather than depedant.
We pluged the numbers into i-864p and got the numbers greater than minimum requirement.
Please help.

Thank you,

-fei
 
Concerned4Us:

Thank you for your suggestion and reply here. Just a bit explanation here, my husband paid his tax in full amount. Since he is co-owner/founder, he paid minimal for his own salary. He paid his tax for his payroll. It is legitimate for any enterpreneur to do so, since you want to keep most investor's equity, which was reinvested in the business to support business' continuous growth.

Maybe I put it in a wrong way. He didn't really commit tax evasion, rather made some special arrangement to keep the business grow. Almost any start-up is supposed to do so. Oweners/founders won't get much salary at the start of your business.

Thank you anyway.
 
feifeifei said:
Acr:

It was 22,500 USD. At least from the document he didn't commit any tax evasion, because he didn't report such income. As a co-owner, you have many more ways to have supplementary income. In 2008, since we were married, so the return include both me and him. We both have incomes.
He never sponsored anyone before. We both repoted tax as independant, rather than depedant.
We pluged the numbers into i-864p and got the numbers greater than minimum requirement.
Please help.

Thank you,

-fei
Click to expand...
Forget your evasion, this is to prove the income as a person, not as a corporation, and not the payments due.
 
Yes. That amount is his personal income. It's not about the corporate.

Do you think my situation is Ok?
 
feifeifei said:
Hi all,

I have a question about the sponsor's income. My husband co-founded a company with his partner. Yes. For tax filing reason, he didn't file his actual income to IRS. Most of his salary was paid in cash, without showing on his W2.
In his W2s for 2006-2009, only 2007 he has the income showed higher than minimum requirement. In 2006, we used his appraisal of diamond. He owes a jewelry store together with his mother. In 2008, he reported our family/household tax, instead of his own. My salary during my intern is very high, so the total tax was far beyond the minimum.

In addition, we also attached one copy of our joint account which showed more than 10K savings.

Based on our situation, do you guys think we will get any RFE? If so, what type of documents we should prepare now.

As a note, my husband is running his own company all the time. He just didn't file as much tax as he should Our marriage is a true marriage.

I will be grateful if you guys and enlighten us with some thoughts.

-fei
Click to expand...

OP admits that husband did not pay taxes due. If paid off W2, he likely did not pay required SS and Medicare taxes for both company and self. This is cheating everyone! Do NOT dismiss thios type of activity on a legal forum. OP and husband should meet with an attorney and make arrangements to properly pay what is due.
 
Concerned4Us:

He paid everything you said, not only for himself, but also every employees.

My God. I definitely misled you with the wrong expression. Anyway thank you for your warm heart from sure.
 
Concerned4Us:

I respect and appreciate your advice and wish to help. However, your words stressed me out.

My husband didn't do tax evasion. I didn't explain clearly, but what he did is just to withhold more of Retaining Equity/Interest of Owner.

I am not encouraging and won't allow my husband to commit crime. We are very responsiblity global citizen.

Thank you for your concerns anyway.
 
feifeifei,

What I think you have is a failure to properly communicate your husband's business financial and tax situation. It it totally understandable since even ordinary personal taxes can drive one crazy on April 14th; add in a small business and it is time to take everything to the accountant.:eek:
(That is what I did after my father died; I let his accountant continue to do all of the business, his personal, and trust accounts for several years even though I had done my family's personal taxes for years and years (one year I had to do 8 from 5 different states because the children had summer jobs all over the country as well as where they attended college).

You seem to know just enough jargon to get yourself into a lot of trouble. Since that is the case, either let your husband or the professionals handle it.

I believe what you are trying to convey is this (using false numbers, of course):

The business made $300,000
The expenses were $200,000
The partners were each paid $25,000 for a total of $50,000
That left $50,000 to reinvest in the business.

Since he only took $25,000 for his wages, he only paid taxes on that amount since the reinvested money was accounted for in other ways. So although he could have taken $50,000 as his share, he decided to buy more inventory or new equipment or ... The reinvestment is not taxed as a wage therefor his W-2 shows only the $25,000 he took as wages. Am I closer to what the situation really is?

You have figured out that the easiest way to meet the financial support requirement is through wages. The next is through cash in the bank at the proper level. There are other assets that a family has like a house, cars, land, ... Look at basic financial planning website for "net worth" forms; filling out one of these will be very informative as you will see how little your car is now worth compared to what you paid for it, that some insurance policies have a value you can access, ...

Most important for your situation, the business is also an asset that has a value - which has likely increased due to the reinvestment in the business. It takes a professional to give a value to the business but with 2 partners, your husband has an asset that is half the value of the business. I do not know how the USCIS values this as it is not a readily accessible asset like a bank account. Its value is likely quite different than the operating capital in the bank.

I suggest that you need to let your husband handle the financial forms and communications or that a professional do so for you so that you can present your true financial situation in the best possible light. It is possible that any shortfall in direct income can be overcome by your and your husband's assets (which includes his share of the business). If it is necessary to answer an RFE, use an attorney (the one he uses for his business would be the first to ask for assistance); he may refer you to a CPA to assist in the preparation of the response.

If nothing else, our exchange should have benefitted you in that it shows how an incomplete or misleading communication of the situation can cause a lot of unnecessary problems. My response to you was correct for what you said; unfortunately, what you actually said was not what you intended to say. (Please don't ever again say that he takes cash that isn't reported on his W-2 !!!) I apologize for scaring you.

I believe that with proper presentation you will be able to address any RFE if one is even received. If I were you, I'd pursue evaluating your net worth because even if it is not needed for an RFE, it is always good to know where you stand and it iwill be nice to look back in ten years to see how far you have come.

Also, you might want to take a small business seminar at your local community college or business development agency.
 
Concern4Us,

thank you very much for your detailed explanation and guidance.

I really appreciate it.

BTw, I just graduated from a top10 MBA program.

-fei
 
I'm not going to comment on whether or not your husband has violated tax laws (tax evasion); instead I'm going to stick to your husband's tax situation in context to only immigration matters.

First and foremost, you need to know that business/corporation's income cannot use for I-864 purpose because business/corporation is not sponsoring you; instead your husband is sponsoring you. Thus, your husband's personal income is needed for the purpose of I-864 than income from his business. And based upon the information provided by you, it seems that your husband doesn't make enough PERSONAL income for the purpose of I-864; thus you guys must need a co-sponsor (joint sponsor). I mean, you stated that your husband received income in cash without W-2 from 2006- until now, so obviously he cannot prove his income. Besides, that income was under the amount required for the purpose of I-864. Bussiness is an asset but USCIS weighs more to the asset that could be liquidified easily. If you guys think that this business could easily be liquified then you need to go to an account to make all the paperwork but still no guarantee that USCIS will accept that if they don't agree with the liquidation of the business when need occurs.

Secondly, it doesn't matter even if you guys have 10k in the bank account because if you want to use asset than income for I-864 than you would need to come up with assets of 3x the income needed. Assets need to be 5x but in marriage case, it needs to be 3x. Based on the guideline provided by USCIS for the year 2009, the income for the household size of two people must be $18,212 for the purpose of I-864. So, if you want to use asset instead of income than this amount of $18,212x3=$54636. You cannot use partial asset and income as combined amount to fulfill the requirement. It must be either income or asset. That being said, the saving of $10K in your bank account won't help.

Thirdly, you need to also understand that CURRENT income is all matter to USCIS when it comes to I-864 than previous income. So it doesn't matter how high or low income someone has had in previous years; instead they would like to see your husband's current income. The reason for USCIS to ask last three years' income is just to see if someone has had good and steady income. For example, just say that your husband just lost his income potential only now because of xyz reasons but he has had very good income last year or other previous years, then immigration adjudication officer MAY take his previous income in consideration to evualate his potential to make future income so to determine you won't be on public help in the future. But it's in the sole discretion of the immigration officer who will be interviewing you. Immigration officers are deemed to take the whole financial sitaution of the couple to make any determination, but 99% of the immigration officers just want to see CURRENT income for the purpose of I-864.

So you better be ready for the RFE, and if somehow USCIS processes your application without sending you RFE then you will be asked for a co-sponsor at the time of interview. But if you will be working by the time of interview and you don't get RFE then your income can be used to overcome this problem.

Good luck...
 
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