Military member with foreign spouse that lives in United Kingdom. Is ITIN required?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
February 18, 2020
1 reply
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Hello All,

I recently got married to my British fiancé. We got married on 23 December 2019 in Ohio (where I am currently living and assigned) but she went right back to continue to live in the United Kingdom while we go through the immigration process. I am trying to file my taxes for 2019 now. Since we got married right before the end of 2019, it looks like I need to file taxes as 'Married, but filing separately,' is that correct?

Also, since she lives in the United Kingdom and has had no US Income, she will not be filing taxes at all. My question is... do we NEED to get her an ITIN even for me to file taxes at all? Is there any exception to this or is an ITIN/SSN required?

Once I get to a certain point in the Turbo Tax Deluxe, it doesn't allow me to move forward unless I enter an ITIN/SSN for my wife, which we don't have (yet). Any thoughts or advice?

Thank you,

Michael Kopa

DoninGA

Employee

If you are a US citizen or US resident and your spouse does not have a Social Security number or an ITIN and you are not applying for an ITIN with the tax return then you can only file your tax return as Married Filing Separately. Where asked to enter the spouse's Social Security number enter 999-88-9999. You can only print and mail your tax return, it cannot be e-filed. When you print the tax return erase the Social Security number for your spouse and manually enter NRA for non-resident alien.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for the procedure to print and mail a tax return using the online editions - https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1944348-how-do-i-print-and-mail-my-return-in-turbotax-online