Alien married to US citizen

[BulldogTom]

H is US citizen. W is citizen of Japan. Two children are have dual citizenship. They lived in Japan all of 2010. Been living there continuously for 6 years with occasional trips to US to visit family. Both worked in Japan.

Filing status - he can only file as MFS unless his spouse elects to be treated as a resident alien, then he can file MFJ? She does not have a filing requirement unless she elects to be treated as a resident alien and files MFJ with him?

Income - he can exclude up to 92,900 of income on form 2555 regardless of his filing status? If they elect resident alien for her, she can exlude the same amount on their MFJ return?

CA should exclude all the income as they are domiciled in Japan for the entire year. Only need to include the rental income from their CA property on the MFJ return?

Do I have this correct?

Thanks.

Tom

Lodi, CA

[Pacun]

H is US citizen. W is citizen of Japan. Two children are have dual citizenship. They lived in Japan all of 2010. Been living there continuously for 6 years with occasional trips to US to visit family. Both worked in Japan.

Filing status - he can only file as MFS unless his spouse elects to be treated as a resident alien, then he can file MFJ? She does not have a filing requirement unless she elects to be treated as a resident alien and files MFJ with him?

Income - he can exclude up to 92,900 of income on form 2555 regardless of his filing status? If they elect resident alien for her, she can exlude the same amount on their MFJ return?

CA should exclude all the income as they are domiciled in Japan for the entire year. Only need to include the rental income from their CA property on the MFJ return?

Do I have this correct?

Thanks.

Tom

Lodi, CA

How about this:

Who is the husband working for in Japan? Is a US Company or Japanese all the way?

Since the United States and Japan have a tax treaty, husband needs to file a return in Japan and take a credit of taxes paid in Japan on his 1040. (Just a thought).

Now the question comes, do you have a choice when to deduct $92,900 if you lived the whole year abroad and when to use form 1116? Do tax treaties have something to do with this?

It seems you are dealing correctly with the rental property since that's what the treaty reads.

[BulldogTom]

There will be no 1116. There is not enough income to generate a tax in the U.S.

[chadlonetree]

Pretty sure I remember that He can file HOH if she is a non resident Alien living outside the country the entire tax year but can not qualify for EIC. When I get a minute I am going to look it up.