Itin assigned

[Edward]

Received letter from IRS awarding taxpayer's spouse an ITIN. Filed their 2011 tax return today reflecting such. They were married in 2010 so therefore I'm assuming that I can amend their 2010 return to add spouse's name and the new ITIN so they can get an additional refund. Is this a good way to handle this?

[Gary2]

Sounds right. Was the original 2010 filed as MFS or as Single? MFS would have been correct, and an amendment to MFJ should go through easily. Single would have been wrong, so it may take some extra explaining. Make sure they can get a copy of their marriage license, just in case, but don't hold up the amendment for it unless there's some doubt in your mind.

[Edward]

When spouse filed the return for 2010 there is no way they could have filed MFS as his spouse had no SSAN nor an ITIN so her name just couldn't go on the return. So the only way to file was single. I had just wondered about the 1040X filing to include her on the return now that she has a ITIN. tHANKS.....So, I'll just go ahead and make the amendment to include her name.....

[Gene V]

Itin

I had the same situation in 2008—except when we file the 2008 tax return (MFJ), we put applied for in SS box and send in Form W-7 with the tax return (per instruction).
I guess in your case, they didn’t apply for ITIN number until the next year after marriage.

Amended should work just fine.

[appelman]

You can always file MFS on paper, with the spouse's SSn space blank.

However, I don't think you'll have trouble amending from single to MFJ. The IRS is used to it. I've done it often and never had a problem. I assume spouse is a tax resident? Otherwise, you need to make an election to treat non-resident spouse as a resident for tax purposes for the earliest year and all subsequent years. Incidentally, the usual procedure is to apply for the ITIN with an amended return for the earliest year, and then work forward once the ITIN is issued.

[David1980]

Should be able to efile MFS with spouse SSN/ITIN blank. You cannot claim the spouse's exemption, so if you filed MFS and claimed spouse exemption you would need the SSN/ITIN. Relevant rejects: Legacy reject 0063 or MEF business rule F1040-008 or F1040A-012.

Software might or might not give a warning error of some kind as you're supposed to fill it in if you have it. Should be a way to transmit anyway though.