Fact pattern:
Married couple with one child. Wife has about $8000 in wage income. Husband has no income, because he was a full-time student for most of the year. The couple relies on student loans and limited financial assistance from family members to supplement the wife's low income.
Wife is US citizen. Husband is not. Husband became a resident alien in July, 2008. The child is a US citizen. All three have valid SSNs.
They plan to file a joint return, and the husband will make the election to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes for the entire year.
The child lived with the mother for the entire year. However, the husband and wife did not live together for most of the year. For much of the year, he was outside the USA. He was attending college in his home country.
The wife also spent some time outside the USA, but it was only a couple months. At all times, the child was living with the wife, or with both the wife and the husband.
The husband and wife actually did live together for at least a few weeks during the last half of the calendar year, so Head of Household is not an option.
Here's the question:
My software asks whether the taxpayer "lived in the US for more than six months of the year," and also asks this same question for the spouse.
The wife's name has been entered as the primary taxpayer. For the primary taxpayer, I answered yes, she lived in the US for more than six months of the year. For the husband, I answered no.
The software is disqualifying the couple from claiming EIC for the child.
I think it's a flaw in the program.
The requirement that you have to live in the US for more than six months is applicable only to those who seek to claim EIC without a qualifying child. I can't find anything in the Internal Revenue Code or in any IRS publication that disqualifies this couple from EIC with a qualifying child.
One possible resolution is to treat the husband's time outside the USA as a temporary absence because he is away at school. If it is indeed a temporary absence, then I can simply answer yes to the question.
But that still doesn't explain why the software thinks that they are not eligible.
In fact, I've tested the same fact pattern in H&R Block's TaxCut Premium version, and the question of whether they lived in the US never even comes up, because they have a qualifying child. TaxCut concludes that they are eligible to claim EIC for the child.
I'm not relying on TaxCut for a definitive answer, but it supports my belief that there may be a flaw in my firm's professional software...
Am I missing something?
BMK
Married couple with one child. Wife has about $8000 in wage income. Husband has no income, because he was a full-time student for most of the year. The couple relies on student loans and limited financial assistance from family members to supplement the wife's low income.
Wife is US citizen. Husband is not. Husband became a resident alien in July, 2008. The child is a US citizen. All three have valid SSNs.
They plan to file a joint return, and the husband will make the election to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes for the entire year.
The child lived with the mother for the entire year. However, the husband and wife did not live together for most of the year. For much of the year, he was outside the USA. He was attending college in his home country.
The wife also spent some time outside the USA, but it was only a couple months. At all times, the child was living with the wife, or with both the wife and the husband.
The husband and wife actually did live together for at least a few weeks during the last half of the calendar year, so Head of Household is not an option.
Here's the question:
My software asks whether the taxpayer "lived in the US for more than six months of the year," and also asks this same question for the spouse.
The wife's name has been entered as the primary taxpayer. For the primary taxpayer, I answered yes, she lived in the US for more than six months of the year. For the husband, I answered no.
The software is disqualifying the couple from claiming EIC for the child.
I think it's a flaw in the program.
The requirement that you have to live in the US for more than six months is applicable only to those who seek to claim EIC without a qualifying child. I can't find anything in the Internal Revenue Code or in any IRS publication that disqualifies this couple from EIC with a qualifying child.
One possible resolution is to treat the husband's time outside the USA as a temporary absence because he is away at school. If it is indeed a temporary absence, then I can simply answer yes to the question.
But that still doesn't explain why the software thinks that they are not eligible.
In fact, I've tested the same fact pattern in H&R Block's TaxCut Premium version, and the question of whether they lived in the US never even comes up, because they have a qualifying child. TaxCut concludes that they are eligible to claim EIC for the child.
I'm not relying on TaxCut for a definitive answer, but it supports my belief that there may be a flaw in my firm's professional software...
Am I missing something?
BMK
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