Filing taxes for my wife [US citizen, now Canadian resident]

[mapleleafs2011]

My wife has become a Canadian permanent resident recently at the end of last year. She has been working in the US all fo 2012 so she will need to file taxes.

I was wondering if there should be any problems of me just filing her as "single" and not married.

Turbotax seems to extend the spousal\marriage questions if you set yourself as "Married." Some of the questions would be SIN number (which I obviously don't have)

Would this be something that would come back and bite me in the ass? Last year, I filed her taxes, and I believe I just filed her as single to avoid the questions.

Any suggestions from those experienced with this would be great. Especially next year, I'm wondering what I should do because the US now requires people of other nationalities to still file tax returns even though they don't live there.

 

[scylla]

You're talking about the US tax filing - yes?

My husband filed as "married - filing separately" (we had the same situation as you did). I don't think she can file as single given she's married.

 

[mapleleafs2011]

You're talking about the US tax filing - yes?

My husband filed as "married - filing separately" (we had the same situation as you did). I don't think she can file as single given she's married.

Yes I am referring to that. Did you use electronic software to file? The problem persists because it asks you what the spouse's SIN is? And in this case since I'm a Canadian. I actually don't have one?

 

[scylla]

No - we don't file electronically. We file by mail.

I don't have an SSN either. We actually went into a Tax off while visiting the US a few years ago. After an extremely painful 1 hour conversation that went around in circles, we determined that married - filing separately was the way to go so that my husband's marital status would be correct and we could deal with the fact that I don't have an SSN.

We've been filing like this for several years now.

 

[mapleleafs2011]

If you don’t mind me asking, do you plan on continue to file taxes for the rest of your lives? What about your kids, they will technically also be subject to filing taxes to America.

Have you thought about your plans for the future?

I’m not one to be against taxes or anything nor do I have anything to be afraid of at the moment, but it just seems like a huge burden. I also plan on opening a business with my wife in the future and if that works out, well I’d imagine I’d be subjected to double tax which sucks.