Daughter's hubby is resident alient - how to do their taxes?

Not the answer to your question, but I'm curious how tax year 2009 US return was filed for each/either of them.

-Mark Bole

Nonresident Alien Spouse Treated as a Resident

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.

• You and your spouse are treated, for income tax purposes, as residents for all tax years that the choice is in effect. * You must file a joint income tax return for the year you make the choice.

This means that neither of you can claim tax treaty benefits as a resident of a foreign country for a tax year for which the choice is in effect.

You can file joint or separate returns in years after the year in which you make the choice.

Read the entire document. They talk about how to make the election, and the need to file form Form TD F 90.22-1. On this form you report your foreign bank accounts. It is important to fill in this form.

They will not be double taxed. The foreign earned income exclusion will allow him to exclude up to about $100k of his salary income from tax. If his salary income is more or he had other income, then the foreign tax credit (credit on US tax return for taxes paid to UK) will help too.

If you don't make the election then I suppose she files a 1040 using MFS, and he doesn't even file at all, but I'm not sure. What did you do for tax year 2009?

Depends on how the 2009 returns were filed, the date he obtained his green card, the date he came to the US and various parts of the treaty.

You may have to file a dual-status return. You may have to file a full- year resident return. You may have to file treaty elections for the period prior to arriving in the US. You may have to file a foreign tax credit for the British taxes paid or payable. You may want to take a Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.or you may want not to. (Generally, I don't recommend the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion since taking it will bar your Dau and your Son-I-L from other credits plus taking it one year then not taking it another will cause future problems.)

While you can do the return, you will find it easier to have some experienced help on this one. I recommend you find someone who does both the UK and the US returns together. This will present a unified picture to both taxing authorities and reduce the questions when they compare note later.

Thanks Mark; nothing for him (no income in USA) and MFS for her.

If you did a married return in 2009, it seems you could have got a making work pay credit of $400 for him, provided your income was $12,903

Line 1 of Schedule M says: Do you (and your spouse if filing jointly) have 2009 wages of more than $6,451 ($12,903 if married filing jointly)?

I take this to mean that together your wage income is more than that limit, then you get the full $800. You probably already got $400, so you can now get another $400.

The rules let you file an amended return and switch from MFS to MFJ, but not the other way around. I don't know if there are restrictions if the other spouse is not a US citizen, but could not find any.