Taxes - Benifit Of A Forigen Spouce?

[kenn]

Hello Guys,I could not find a good spot to post my Tax question so I will put it here to see if someone knows.I am from America. I work and live in China for the last 3 years. Married to a girl from the Philippines. She does not have a US visa and she did not work during the 2010 tax year. Last year I filed my taxes Jointly with my Ex (american) wife.....Someone told me that I needed to file a W-7 with the IRS to get my new wife a tax ID number. Now that I am married to the girl from the Philippines what is the best way to approach my US taxes to get the most benefit?Anyone have any knowledge on this situation?Thanks,Ken

[United Army]

Hello Guys,I could not find a good spot to post my Tax question so I will put it here to see if someone knows.I am from America. I work and live in China for the last 3 years. Married to a girl from the Philippines. She does not have a US visa and she did not work during the 2010 tax year. Last year I filed my taxes Jointly with my Ex (american) wife.....Someone told me that I needed to file a W-7 with the IRS to get my new wife a tax ID number. Now that I am married to the girl from the Philippines what is the best way to approach my US taxes to get the most benefit?Anyone have any knowledge on this situation?Thanks,Ken

Hi Ken,Yes I just did that for my 2009 taxes. You have to fill out the W-7 and mail that with your federal tax forms to Austin Texas. You have to request a ITIN number from the IRS in Austin Texas and that is what the W-7 form is for. You have to mail your forms to that office. I requested a ITIN for my wife and her daughter, the IRS only approved my wife. I filed back in early July 2010 and just got my Federal tax check in November. Just google ITIN and or form W-7 and you will find all the info there.

[Art2ro]

U.S. IRS Federal & State tax refund! What's that? I haven't seen one of those in the last two years because now IRS claims that I make too much money with my combined 4 U.S. Government pensions, even though two of them are tax exempted! We, my wife and I don't have any tax breaks, exemptions or tax relief declaration every year when filing our U.S. joint tax returns, except for that we don't pay California State tax as long as we don't set foot in that state which we only do once every 2 to 3 yrs on vacation, for only weeks or a few months at a time! Fortunately the Philippine Government abides by their no Double Taxation Laws against retirees living in the Philippines as long we have no other source of income deriving from the Philippines even though we both become dual citizens of this country, which my wife is now and I may follow suit later on this year before my "Balikbayan" stamp expires! The only thing I look forward to is reaching or surpassing the age of 70 so that I will be tax exempted from then on after for U.S. tax filing purposes, but only if I live that long and or beyond the age of 70!