U.S. Tax Related Question

[Wizzle86]

I married a Japanese Citizen in 2011 and I was wondering the following questions...

1- What status do i file under?
I assume "Married Filing Jointly"...

2- Does this mean my wife needs to get a SSN?

And any other advice or things to keep in mind one could give me regarding a newly wed trying to file taxes this year...

Thank you!!!!

[Siyris]

You should contact someone in the states who knows tax law.... but I do not think you are filing jointly... Unless she already has a SSN or a Tax Payer's ID number, it will not be a joint filing. I don't know what it WOULD be... but a Married-filing jointly couple is a married couple who each have a SSN or Tax Payer's ID number and are combining their assets to file together.... it is not possible to file jointly if one person does have one of those numbers and one person does not.

Contact a tax specialist, or as a family member/friend in the states to ask one for you.

[AichiPA_Kevin]

What Siyris said. You need a professional, or at least a copy of TurboTax or something.

[Kagemusha]

I'm in the exact situation, and the op and I already found the solution.

Here is the easiest solution if you have no US taxable income (you were a JET for the full year)...
1. Get an ITIN via the W-7 for your spouse.
2. File Married, Separate.
3. Claim exemption for Non Resident Alien Spouse, although if you have no gross adjusted income you won't get the money anyway, I guess.

References...
http://www.aca.ch/brunaltx.htm
http://www.aca.ch/joomla/index.php?opti ... &Itemid=46
http://www.aca.ch/joomla/images/pdfs/spousew7.pdf

Next year's taxes will be more complicated, when we go to the US later this year, but at least this year won't be so bad.