"Don Rosenberg" <taxoffice[at]rosieea.gccoxmail.com> wrote:
- quote -

Thanks for all your help, it shed quite a bit of light on
the subject. As she has had zero income this year the
married/jointly thing might work best in our favor.

Thanks again.
Ben..

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"Ben" <bozothedeathmachine[at]excite.com> wrote:

- quote -

If you file jointly, you and your spouse are each entitled
to a PERSONAL exemption on the return. There is no
"dependency" issue. Ignore all those rules about
dependents. Quoting Pub. 17: "Your spouse is never
considered your dependent...On a joint return you can claim
one exemption for yourself and one for your spouse."

Don Rosenberg, EA

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bozothedeathmachine[at]excite.com (Ben) writes:

- quote -


- quote -

Then you are considered married. When you have met ANY of
the tests, you are considered married.

So you are considered married, which means she is *not*
your dependent. However, if you file married filing jointly,
you get to take a personal exemption for each of you, anyways.

--
Rich Carreiro rlcarr[at]animato.arlington.ma.us

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bozothedeathmachine[at]excite.com (Ben) wrote:

- quote -

Im going to assume that you do not have any qualifying
person living with you that would make you eligible to file
as Head of Household if you were considered unmarried. That
said, your wife can never be your dependent. The first
thing you need to determine is whether she is a resident
alien (passes substantial presence test) or a nonresident
alien for 2003. If she is a resident alien, you can file a
joint return and claim both personal exemptions. If she is
a nonresident alien, you have a choice. You can file as
married-separate and claim two personal exemptions if she
had no US income or you can file a joint return by making an
election to treat her as a resident alien. As a resident
alien she has to include her worldwide income on the joint
return. IRS Pub 519, explains all of this as well as how to
make the election.

Note that if she had no income for the year, the best method
is to make the election and file a joint return as the tax
tables have lower rates than married-separate.

Alan
http://taxtopics.net

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My wife and I got married in May. She just moved here from
Europe and has never worked in the U.S. (she only got her
SSN yesterday). I'm reading the exemptions document, but
they throw different terms around without defining them all.

I'm trying to figure out if my wife qualifies as a dependent
as she does not work. Here is what the document says

"Considered married. You are considered married for the
*whole year* if on the last day of the you tax year you and
your spouse meet any one of the following:
1) You are married and living together as husband and wife."

Ok, we meet that criterion, but under the definition of
dependent for an alien resident and "Member of Household
Test" is says:

"...a person must: - live with you for the *entire year* as a
member of your household..."

So, are "whole year" and "entire year" the same? Can anyone
give me some info/advice? I have no idea how to alter my W-4
(head of household? Dependents?). Since it's still quite a
while away from tax time I won't really start to worry about
that yet.

Thanks..

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