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Showing results for tags 'taxes'.
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from the Global Times Foreigners facing challenges with the implementation and interpretation of filing and paying income taxes in China look for answers
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I see that they've posted new publications for 2014 as of Dec. 9, at least for Pub. 54 - Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion now extends to up to $99,200. Remember that you are NOT actually excluding anything - you must REPORT and PAY TAXES on your Foreign Earned Income. Taxes on your income are figured using the Foreign Earned Income worksheet, which is in the 1040 instructions. I don't see anything in this Publication regarding the Affordable Care Act, or how that will be treated. I looked through the Table of Contents, and did text searches for Affordable or Health, and came up with nothing. Publication 17 - Your Income Tax, which will contain information about what you can expect on the 2014 forms has not yet been updated.
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Hey folks, I have a two-part question: My wife's parents unfortunately both passed last year. She has inherited their home and their savings account. I hope someone can give me a heads-up on our tax situation under the following scenarios: 1. We will sell the parents' home in the next 2-3 years and wire that money to our joint bank account in the US. Well, at least attempt to! Ha. What kind of tax bill will that hit us with? Do any of you have any personal experience with this scenario? (The sale of a home in China and repatriating funds.) I'm thinking several here might. Any general advice about the process is appreciated! 2. In the interim, we want to transfer the parents' savings to our US bank account. As I understand it, a Chinese national can send up to 50K US per year abroad. We would wire the full 50K. How would that transfer be taxed on the US side? As regular income? Again, if anyone has any personal experience with this kind of transaction I'd appreciate any advice on the process as well. Thanks for any help! I appreciate and general or specific advice you can give. Cheers, Aaron -
Hi Guys, I have been scouring the pages for some how what is exactly needed when applying for the ITIN from the IRS. My wife and I were married last year in China and are planing on filing my US Taxes jointly for our first time. She does not currently qualify for a SSN as she is Chinese and has never been to the US. We are currently based in Hebei province close to Beijing and submitted our application for her I-130 to USCIS in January. According to the W7 instructions: She has never been to the US (no date of entry stamp), thus, more documentation is required than her passport when submitting the W7. She has both her ID card, a translated copy of her birth certificate from a Chinese Consulate (commonly know as the white book), and her passport. My Question is, what is needed to make these "certified" so that the IRS will accept them as legitimate and process her W7 without any issues? 1) For her passport, if we take a photocopy and the original to get them notarized at a US Consulate, does that count as "Certified"? 2) Does a white book need to be authenticated by the Consulate before it can be used in the US? 3) Does a Chinese ID card also need a white book to translate it to be used? Thanks in advance. The Kings -
Alright guys, I have nearly acquired nearly EVERYTHING needed for the final interview in Guangzhou!! The co-sponsorship i-864 from my relative came in the mail last week (took a month!) along with the photocopies of the last year's most recent tax forms, etc.... The only thing I need to complete now is get my taxes in order. I need to back-file. I've been in China for 6 years and never made enough money to merit filing... I was a student here for 5 years, did some part time jobs (from teaching centers, which sent me pay stubs, and deducted tax) but also I never made more than 50K RMB per year. Anyway, which forms are relevant to my filing needs? I need some very generic advice here, and possibly some additional pointers if you are familiar with those forms and feel like there's possible points of confusion I'd run into... For those past years I'd need to file single, and for this past year I'd need to do a married but separate file (since we're married but my wife has a job in China, not america, doesn't even have an SSN?) -
2 Questions- 1- I just got a family member to cosponsor my spouse on the i-864 form, but my family member filed taxes jointly for the previous year. Does that mean that my family member's spouse also needs to fill out an i-864 since the taxes were filed jointly? 2 - I didn't have a paying job for the previous 6 years in China since I was on a student visa (for a Master's, then a PHD). What kind of proof is useful for proving I made below taxable income, which I would have to file if I checked that box on the i-864? Thanks everybody!
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Hi people of CFL forum, I am new to this forum but I have spent the last 8 hours reading tons of posts on here and I want to thank all of you for taking the time to share your experiences and knowledge with others who are going through this difficult and confusing process. Quick summary of my situation. We got married in Asia in March last year, 2016, submitted I-130 in early this year 2017. After submitting the petition we decided to move to the US and continue the process here so we arrive early June, I entered the country with a B2 tourist visa. Since my husband has been gone for too long, almost 10 years, we had to wait 90 days consecutively for him to get is resident status back (he is a US citizen). I have been filling out all the forms for adjustment of status and waiting for the day we can submit it. The problem I have is he didn't file his tax returns for the last 3 years. Now we are scrambling to get this done. A CPA accountant told us that I need to get an ITIN so he could file as married for 2016 tax so he could get tax breaks, he is too late in his tax returns that they might not accept his deduction (foreign earned income under $100k). This means we have to either wait 6-7 weeks to get the ITIN back from the IRS or pay a few hundreds for a professional to do it and this would take 2-4 weeks. I plan to submit this Sep 4, exactly 90 days since we got here to save time. I was wondering if he could file as "married file separately", we submit our I-485 as planned, meanwhile I make an appointment with an IRS service office (we got the earliest one which is Sep 21st) and a few weeks later get my ITIN, file my late tax return then? OR should I wait till I get my SSN and then file an amended return as "married file jointly"? 1. Have any of you done this before or could give me your opinion on this? If it's okay to do so, in the field where he needs to put my SSN he will put "Applied for ITIN"? or "000000000" if we file electronically? 2. For his last 3 year tax filing, he would need to fill out 1040, 4852 and 2225? Is there anything else? 2. We have his mom as our co-sponsor by the way and I have her last year tax return and her passport copy which I hope is good enough? Thank you for reading my loooong post. -
Beijing to back United States over new Fatca law against tax evasion The Form TD F 90-221 has been required of those "US Persons" with accounts in China with balances exceeding $10,000 at any point during a reporting year. The new agreement will make it possible for the IRS to check up on your balances. Foreign Bank Accounts - Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) If you or your spouse have a foreign bank account which has exceeded a total value of $10,000, this should have been reported to the IRS using a Form TD F 90-221 for the year(s) during which the event occurred, on or before June 30th. Your spouse's bank accounts may fall under this umbrella even if he/she is living in China (if you are filing married filing jointly). Stiff penalties may apply, ranging up to 50% of the account value for each year it was not reported. The IRS has had "voluntary disclosure" programs where you can donate some of your overseas account money to the IRS. If you do not owe any tax money on the undisclosed accounts, my advice is to MAKE CERTAIN of what you're doing before you donate ANY money to their coffers. In other words, these programs and penalties (and the FBAR report itself) are supposed to apply to actual tax cheats - not people who simply have unreported non-taxable money outside the US tax system. In addition, Scedule B says: -
My wife has her interview scheduled for next week and we have a question on the US tax situation. As an expat we get an automatic extension until June 15th to finish our taxes. Though as we were filling out the documents it said that we need to have the three most recent years taxes. I am in the process of working on the current years taxes that are due on June 15th. The reason why it is taking so long for us to file is because I am trying to file as married filing jointly and get an ITIN for my wife. As many of you know this process is manual and you need to send in information for it which would not make it possible for us to file before her interview. The other option I have is to file married filing separately and submit my taxes immediately. The taxes go up several thousand dollars so it is not an ideal situation if we can avoid it. The argument that my CPA made was that it takes 4-8 weeks for the IRS to process the returns and even if I submit MFS today it will still be in process. She suggested that I could provide the copy of the married filing jointly to them that we have complete along with the proof of the extension. She offered to write a letter that the return was fully completed and we were working on the ITIN. Lastly, she suggested also providing 2013 return which would meet the 3 year filed returns requirement. As a side note I have also included my US bank accounts which are well above the poverty line. Question is how strict are they on this IRS requirement and do they follow the rules of the IRS or is it a hard line where they say it must be filed no matter what? Any suggestions?
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Does anyone know about FBAR taxes? TurboTax asked about foreign assets. I think that we are not required to file, but am not sure she understands the importance of my questions. Hoping to locate a Chinese CPA to discuss and file if necessary.
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I am wondering if all the money, fee's, we pay to the federal government for immigration is a deductible expense.
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I'm trying to order transcripts of my tax returns from the IRS website, but the website isn't working. (I live in China.) I was wondering if for the interview I can submit copies of my original returns (the last 2 years I used TurboTax online and can generate a transcript from there), or do they require the actual "IRS transcript"? If the latter, do they have to be originals? My plan B is to order paper copies of the transcripts (which the IRS website allows me to do) and have them sent to relatives in the US and they would take pictures or scan and send them to me to print out. -
My wife and I hope to get our I-130 and I-130a approved. I have a question about when it comes time for the interview. I have my tax transcripts for 2015, 2014, and 2013 this includes the account transcripts and return transcripts. Will this be enough? I can't get 2016 yet will this be a problem? Thank you -
Can't find W2 from 2015, but I do have the tax transcripts from the past three years from the IRS. Will this be enough for when we go to the hopeful interview? Thank you for the help
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The title says it all. My sister in law (hong sister) when to Chengdu to get a certified copy of her passport so Bob, her American husband can get her an ITIN number (W-7) she had a appointment and all Chengdu said they did not trust her and she needed some sort of tax papers from bob. What papers she needs i have no idea. The only thing i know she wasted a trip to Chengdu and will have to go back. Any idea what they are talking about. She will be in Chengdu for 5 more days and there is a appointment open this Friday. Would like to get this taken care of this week. Mike -
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Hello, I am an American citizen who has been living abroad for the past 5 years. I haven't filed any taxes since I left the States, because I mistakenly thought I didn't need to. Now I am applying for a CR-1 immigrant visa for my Chinese husband, and I know I have to supply my tax returns for the past 3 years. So, I have two questions. 1. Can I back-file my taxes without any W-2's? I have been working for small English schools and agencies in Japan, Russia, and China, as well as studying, so I doubt that they will have any tax information on record, let alone in English. (I also haven't been making much, about $15,000 per year max). 2. Is there any way to expedite the tax return procedure? Our visa appointment is in 3 weeks from today. If possible, I would like to have the returns by Nov. 4, and will pay extra if necessary, as it looks like my husband's green card approval depends on these tax returns. Should I hire a tax service to help me with this? If yes, do you guys have any good recommendations? Your replies will be greatly greatly appreciated! Thank you!! Ksenia and Dongguan
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Hello community. I apologize if this question has already been asked. I am in the process of preparing all the materials for my husband's interview in Guangzhou. On the I-864 form, it says that I must have a copy of my W-2 and/or 1099. My husband and I both live and work in China. I have tax returns for the past three years, but i only have 1040s since I've been living and working in China. Is it okay to go to the interview with only my 1040s? I see there is a Form 4852 to substitute for W-2. Should I fill this out? I don't see many people talking about from 4852 on forums though... Thanks!! I should also say that I already have copies of my IRS transcripts, but they only show that I have 1040 forms and nothing else... Oh yeah I should also say that my parents will be my joint sponsors, and they will have W-2's.
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Hi all, For the i-864, my joint-sponsor filed an amended tax return (1040X) in 2014 and I can't figure out how to report the "Total Income" for Part 6 19.b. Is it a problem if I use the "Total Income" from his 2015 and 2013 1040 tax returns, but the "Adjusted Gross Income" from his 2014 1040X tax return when I fill in Part 6 19 a. b. and c.? If it is a problem, how do I figure out what the "Total Income" was for 2014? Thanks in advance for any help. This group's posts have been incredibly helpful and encouraging! -
Hi, First time poster. I love this site, it has given me so much information and confidence as I prepare to start the process for my wife's green card. I have lived in China for the last 6 years and haven't filed a tax return since I have been here. I am getting ready to file my back taxes. I will file for 2013, 2014, and 2015. My question is: Is there any chance that I will need a tax return from 2012? Or is the last 3 years going to be enough? Thanks so much in advance.
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With tax time coming, I was wondering how to file for '06. We were married in Feb '06 and are currently awaiting interview for K-3/K-4. In this situation, with no Visa and no SSN, what to do?
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Hi All, My instruction for I-485 marriage-based cases (my fiancee came here on K-1) states we must bring the following additional items: Affidavit of support, COMPLETED AND NOTARIZED, WITH THE SPONSOR'S FEDERAL INCOME TAX RETURNS FOR THE MOST RECENT TAX YEAR. My questions: 1) Affidavit of support: does this mean I need to fill out a new form I-864? Notarized? I'm confused since I already submitted it with my I-485 application, do I need a new one? 2) Tax return: I e-filed, so I don't have a signed paper copy. Can I print out a copy and sign it? Does it need to be notarized? For the I-485 application I submitted 3 years of IRS transcript already. Thanks! John -
I am trying to file my taxes and my wife does not have a ITIN or SSN yet. However I noticed on the 1040 instructions it says you can write in "NRA" if your spouse does not have and is not required to have a ITIN or SSN. Does this apply to my wife from China? Do I need to go through the hassle of getting her a ITIN? She does not work and has no income. She has never been to the USA or ever had a visa issued. I only found one conversation on the forums about this and it wasn't particulalry clear.
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More posted in the Wall Street Journal. A measure targeting tax evasion pushes Americans out of bank accounts—and jobs—abroad http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-law-that-makes-u-s-expats-toxic-1444330827
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When submitting tax transcripts with the I-864 do you need to submit one ordered with the 4506t form or is the one ordered from the IRS website ok? On the IRS website it says you can order a tax return transcript via online but it doesn't mention this is ok on the instructions page for the I-864. Has anyone used this method? Any advice, please?
