How to delete my husband from my tax return since he pays taxes to Germany, he is a foreigner

Forum|Forum|10 months ago
May 23, 2025
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He is a Bosnian citizen living and working in German, paying German taxes. I am unemployed and don't take any benefits, one baby

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pk12_2

Employee

@karic-belma , we need a lot more info to be able to help you -- please start with the following:

1. Are you a US person ( citizen/GreenCard/Resident for tax purposes )? How about your husband ? Does he have a GreenCard from the USA and/or what his connections to the USA ?

2. Are you trying to file a Married Filing Joint ( MFJ ) return along with your husband ?

3. If you have no income and your husband has no US sourced income and is not a US person, why are you filing a return ?

I will circle back once I hear from you --yes ?

karic-belmaAuthor

Hi, thank you for taking the time to help me.

1. Yes, I am a US citizen (naturalization) with passport. My husband has no connection with the US. We live in Germany, I am a stay at home mom with a 1 year old baby, and he works for Germany already for 8 years. I came here 4 years ago and worked for the US garrison until I gave birth, payed regular taxes so far.

2. I am trying to file my taxes, even if its zero income, but I am unable to proceed since its the first time I am filling taxes after getting married and I am filling alone, but it does not give me the option to proceed since it is asking me to put in his ssn which he doesnt have nor can i write anything else it brings me back to that article when filling.

3. shouldnt I do my taxes and file a return even with 0 income or is it not mandatory?

Thank you in advance again for your time and help

pk12_2

Employee

@karic-belma , my answers are in Italics below:

Do you mean you have been paying US taxes only or was Germany was taxing you ? Thought because of armed forces agreements etc. payments from US govt. sources are taxable only by US.

Since your husband is NRA, even if you are living together, you could file Married Filing Separate ( MFS) or with a qualifying child as Head of Household ( HoH ). The HoH should not require details of your husband but your child should have SSN -- I am assuming that your child is a US citizen .

If you file MFS, then you will have to file by mail and not e-file. The steps are as follows:

(a) Prepare the return as per normal using a dummy SSN for your husband plus details like name, DoB etc.

(b) Tell TurboTax that you want to file by mail.

(c) Print the filing copy, replace the dummy SSN with " N R A", sign , date and mail in the return.

3. shouldnt I do my taxes and file a return even with 0 income or is it not mandatory?

Generally, and if you were residing in the USA or have major connections , I would have said there is no requirement to file a return if your gross income is zero. However, because you are living abroad, filing a tax return would show that you are still maintaining your US connections. And of course , if you are able to file HoH, a filing is necessary for getting additional child tax credit.

That is IMHO.

Is there more I can do for you ?

btw-- where in Germany are you stationed -- I ask because back in early eighties, I lived in a small village called Pech, near Bad Godesburg bei Bonn.