# NRA - jointly or seperately



## med96ben (May 21, 2012)

First post here. Helpfull forum. I can go on and on about my opinion og having til file as an expat but...

Big question is, I am a high earner. USC. <snip> We live in high tax Scandinavian country. Own home, and am a sole proprietership. Business loans and lots of business costs. Am finding the reporting requirements to be more complex as things go.

Yes, I pay lots of tax. About 42-44%. Have been filing as married filing jointly with my NRA wife.

For the case of simplifying things so that I do not have to pester my wife for all of her financial situation each year, I was considering ending this election.

I know that this will propel me closer to the reporting requirements for the FATCA form.

Is there a "great" advantage to continue filing jointly or will I suffer by ending this election?


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

As I understand it you only have the option to file jointly with your NRA spouse for a year in which she actually lived in the US for part of the year. And, if you elect to file jointly, you both must file as US residents for the entire year - which means no FEIE for either of you.

As you can see though, these things are rather sporadically controlled/enforced for overseas residents.

You plays the game and you takes your chances. In your situation I would file separately and file a sincere, though simplified set of forms to demonstrate that you are hiding nothing but owe the US no taxes.
Cheers,
Bev


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## med96ben (May 21, 2012)

*not sure about that*



Bevdeforges said:


> As I understand it you only have the option to file jointly with your NRA spouse for a year in which she actually lived in the US for part of the year. And, if you elect to file jointly, you both must file as US residents for the entire year - which means no FEIE for either of you.
> 
> As you can see though, these things are rather sporadically controlled/enforced for overseas residents.
> 
> ...


Well, I think you are wrong on one count. From all I have read one can make the election to treat their non-resident spouse as a resident for tax filing purposes but once this option is revoked it is revoked forever (for the same spouse that is)...


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## barribr (Jun 2, 2012)

You will have to make the decision to include your spouse on the tax return or not. The proper way to do this is to project your taxes and see the effect on your tax liability. I have seen the calculation go either way. Depending on your visits back to the US, you could use the foreign earned income exclusion and foreign tax credits to offset most of the income anyway.

Also, I have seen a lot of people not to include the spouse because it is just easier, especially if the person has a business.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

med96ben said:


> Well, I think you are wrong on one count. From all I have read one can make the election to treat their non-resident spouse as a resident for tax filing purposes but once this option is revoked it is revoked forever (for the same spouse that is)...


Let me just point out this section from page 6 of Publication 54:



> If, at the end of your tax year, you are married and one spouse is a U.S. citizen or a resident alien and the other is a nonresident alien, you can choose to treat the nonresident as a U.S. resident. This includes situations in which one of you is a nonresident alien at the beginning of the tax year and a resident alien at the end of the year and the other is a nonresident alien at the end of the year.
> 
> If you make this choice, the following two rules apply.
> 
> ...


The main thing is that if you want to take the FEIE, you cannot file jointly with an NRA spouse. That much I'm sure of.
Cheers,
Bev


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## med96ben (May 21, 2012)

Ok. Are tvere any limitations to revoking the choice (like death or divorce) or is it just to make the weitten election to revoke and be done with it?


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