Question

ITIN application + tax amendment... can ITIN issued in 2019 or 2021 used to amend prior year tax return

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
November 10, 2021
1 reply
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Hi,

prior year tax filed as single. all taxes paid.

can someone apply for ITIN/ W-7application along with prior year tax amendment.

TurboTax Basic Online

O

Opus 17

Employee

Generally speaking, you can only apply for an ITIN when you have a financial connection to the United States. This is often created when you file a tax return that reports your income or the income of your spouse who is not a US citizen or green card holder.

My question would be, what has changed since the filing of the original tax return that requires you to amend and add an ITIN at the same time? For example, if you were legally married to a non-resident alien but you made a mistake and filed as single, and you now want to correct that and file as married, it would be appropriate and required that you apply for an ITIN for your spouse when you file your return. But to really know how to answer your question, we would have to know more about the exact circumstances.

M

msr19Author

Thanks for reply.

spouse was resident alien but not having ITIN at time of filing taxes. so filed as single and thought of amending it later. so can apply for ITIN along with previous year tax amendment.

I read somewhere rule changed for ODC. ITIN issued later year cant be used to amend prior year taxes to get ODC. other dependent credit. But any timeline to apply for ITIN if taxes already filed.

Thanks and appreciated

O

Opus 17

Employee

@msr19

If you are legally married, you must file as married regardless of the immigration status of your spouse, Or the availability of any credits or deductions. You can file as married filing separately, or married filing jointly, but you must file using a married status. Filing as single constitutes tax fraud, and the IRS does not observe a statute of limitations for fraudulent tax returns. In other words, they can reopen your prior return at any time for the rest of your life if they wanted to.

Also, your spouse is never a dependent for the other dependent credit or any other tax credit. Your spouse is your spouse, and if you file jointly, you will have an increased standard deduction compared to filing single or filing married filing separately.

It is true that there are certain other tax benefits that a spouse only qualifies for if you have a tax number or Social Security number when you file an on-time tax return. (I don’t have a list of those benefits right now, and I don’t know whether or not they would affect you.) filing an amended return one or two years later is certainly not a “on time“ tax return, and if any of those tax benefits apply to your spouse, they won’t be awarded.

However, that is not a reason to skip filing the amended return. You must file as married if you were legally married on December 31 of that tax year. Filing an amended joint return and applying for the ITIN may still reduce your tax and result in a refund, because you would benefit from the lower tax rates and higher standard deduction for joint filing compared with single.