Change in Status

[Snaggletooth]

Lady from China filed her own taxes last year as a non-resident alien.

So.....in 2006 she marries one of my clients. She is equally married to the
1040NR instruction booklet sent to her by the IRS, and has been driving me
nuts about some election to rescind her NRA status. Even though married to
an Alabama-born-and-raised, she is still a couple years away from citizenship.

I told her she could file as a citizen like any other wife, and file a joint return
with her husband. I told her to FORGET about that 1040NR instruction book
like all the Mexicans -- who absolutely are being filed every day with no
such compunctions, I can guarantee you.

Does she have to rescind her NRA status per Pub 519? I'll admit to knowing
virtually nothing about all the various alien categories.

[Brad Imsdahl]

Tell her you don't do 1040NRs. She has to go back to China to find someone who does.

You can file a 1040 MFJ return for her, or she can go someplace else.

That's what I'd do.

[Koss]

Alien Returns

There are some elections you have to be careful with on nonresident alien returns. But I think your client (or his wife) is getting it backwards.

Many, but not all, nonresident aliens file a regular Form 1040 because they are treated as resident aliens for tax purposes. A nonresident alien can achieve this status in several different ways. One way is to make a first year election. Another way is to be the spouse of a US citizen or resident alien.

I don't think the woman needs to rescind an election. I think that by filing a joint return, she will be making an election to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes. And this election may be irrevocable.

The other thing that may be confusing her is something called a dual status return. There will eventually be one year in which she is a nonresident alien for part of the year, and a resident alien for part of the year. Some aliens have to file a dual-status return, and it's alice-in-wonderland stuff. You actually have to prepare both a 1040NR and a 1040, staple them together, and write "dual status return" across the top.

But that usually applies to the year in which their formal status changes from nonresident alien to resident alien. This woman won't have a dual status year when she becomes a resident alien if she chooses right now to be treated as a resident alien for tax purposes for all of 2006.

With all that being said, there is one thing you might point out that could help resolve the whole question. If she insists on filing a nonresident alien return, even if someone else does it, her husband will be forced to use MFS.

Unless there's a kid, in which case he might be able to use Head of Household, even if they were living together... that's another alice-in-wonderland scenario. They probably don't want to go there.

Does she have an SSN or an ITIN? (FYI: It doesn't matter.)

Burton M. Koss

[Snaggletooth]

Thanks for the response

This lady was trying to nail me to the wall by reading excerpts from the 1040NR instructions and a J K Lasser instruction booklet. My first inclination would be to
tell her just to do it herself or find someone else. I could turn down every 1040NR
and live quite comfortably. But she is now married to a client who I've for 10 years.

She does have a SS#.