Separated spouse filed for SNAP benefits as single. Does this affect ability to file taxes jointly?
"The IRS isn't going to care how you filed for benefits - they're effectively the high man on the totem pole.  The agency that administers the SNAP program is the one who might care.  File the 1040 correctly, and then deal with SNAP as you note.  Do deal with SNAP, though; otherwise they might be in trouble if SNAP notices the discrepancy in an audit of their paperwork. Further, SNAP doesn't necessarily care here either.  SNAP defines a household as the people who live together in a house and share expenses; a separated couple who neither shared expenses nor lived together would not be treated as a single household, and thus one or both would separately qualify.  See this Geeks on Finance article or this Federal SNAP page for more details; and ask the state program administrator.  It may well be that this has no impact for him/her.  The details are complicated though, particularly when it comes to joint assets (which may still be joint even if they're otherwise separated), so look it over in detail, and talk to the agency to attempt to correct any issues. Note that depending on the exact circumstances, your friend might have another option other than Married Filing Jointly.  If the following are true: Then she may file as ""Head of Household"", and her (soon-to-be) ex would file as ""Married Filing Separately"", unless s/he also has dependents which would separately allow filing as Head of Household.  See the IRS document on Filing Status for more details, and consider consulting a tax advisor, particularly if she qualifies to consult one for free due to lower income."
"Be mindful of your reporting requirements. Besides checking the box on Schedule B of your 1040 that you have a foreign bank account, you also need to file a TD F 90-22.1 FBAR report for any year that the total of all foreign bank accounts reaches a value of $10,000 at any time during the year. This is filed separately from your 1040 by June 30 of the following year. Penalties for violating this reporting requirement are draconian, in some cases exceeding the amount of money in the foreign bank account. This penalty has been levied on people who have been reporting and paying tax on the interest on their foreign bank accounts, and merely neglected this separate report filing. Article on the ""shoot the jaywalker"" punitive enforcement policy. http://www.rothcpa.com/archives/006866.php Mariette IRS Circular 230 Notice: Please note that any tax advice contained in this communication is not intended to be used, and cannot be used, by anyone to avoid penalties that may be imposed under federal tax law. EDITED TO ADD" "Question is, what do we need to do as far as the IRS is concerned? I   mean we'll get the money from them and pay it back less than two   months later. You're probably worried about the gift tax. Since you're a couple, the maximum exclusion amount is calculated like this: The reason the Pg multiplier stands separate is that gift splitting does require form 709 filed even if no tax is due, unless they actually write separate checks for their respective portions. So the math shows that you and your wife can get at least $28K from anyone without the need of gift tax to be paid or gift tax return to be filed. You can get up to $56K from your parents, but the gift splitting may need to be documented on form 709. Since you're in fact talking about a loan you're going to repay, you'll need to document it (with a note and everything), and document the repayment. If interest is being paid - your parents must declare it on their tax return for the year, obviously. In this case, if the loan is properly documented, repaid and the interest is declared, the IRS won't even bother claiming it was a gift. Even if there's no real interest, it shouldn't be an issue (the IRS might assign some ""deemed"" interest at their rates that would be considered a gift, but assuming no other gift transactions between you exist for the year the amount would be miniscule and way below the $14K exclusion level). Of course, as with any tax concern, you get here what you paid for. For a proper advice talk to a tax adviser (EA/CPA) licensed in your State." "It looks like the HST will be in effect in Ontario on July 1st, 2010.   As to whether it will replace GST with HST for all services, it looks like some sectors may get special treatment: Ontario may exempt mutual funds from HST (National Post).  But it doesn't look final yet. However, I would suggest that most service-based businesses in Ontario need to prepare to start charging 13% HST instead of 5% GST.  It will be the law. On the ""goods"" side of the new harmonized tax, it looks like certain goods will still be exempt from the provincial portion.  Here's a quote from the Ontario Budget 2009 News Release: ""Books, diapers, children's clothing   and footwear, children's car seats and   car booster seats, and feminine   hygiene products would be exempt from   the provincial portion of the single   sales tax."" Here's some additional information on the introduction of the HST, from the province: General Transitional Rules for Ontario HST. And finally, another interesting article from the Ottawa Business Journal: Preparing For Ontario Sales Tax Harmonization – It's Not Too Early  UPDATE: I just received an insert from Canada Revenue Agency included with my quarterly GST statement.  Titled ""Harmonization of the Sales Tax in Ontario and British Columbia"", it contains a section titled ""What this means for you"" (as in, you the business owner).  Here's an excerpt: [...] All Ontario and B.C. registrants would need to update their accounting   and point-of-sale systems to   accomodate the change in rate and new   point-of-sale rebates for the   implementation date of July 1, 2010. The harmonization of the sales tax in Ontario and B.C. may affect the   filing requirements of registrants   outside of these two provinces. Registrants will report their HST according to their current GST filing   frequency. As a result of the harmonization, there will be changes to the rebates   for housing and public service bodies. More information will be released as   it becomes available. Visit the CRA   web site often, at   www.cra.gc.ca/harmonization, for   the most up-to-date information on the   harmonization of the sales tax and how   it may affect you. [...] Last, I found some very detailed information on the HST here: NOTICE247 - Harmonized Sales Tax for Ontario and British Columbia - Questions and Answers on General Transitional Rules for Personal Property and Services.  Chances are anything you want to know is in there." You can file a revised W-4 with your employer claiming more allowances than you do now. More allowances means less Federal tax and (if applicable and likely with a separate form) less state tax. This doesn't affect social security and Medicare with holding, though.  That being said, US taxes are on a pay-as-you-go system. If the IRS determines that you're claiming more allowances than you're eligible for and not paying the proper taxes throughout the year, they will hit you with an underpayment penalty fee, which would likely negate the benefits of keeping that money in the first place. This is why independent contractors and self-employed people pay quarterly or estimated taxes. Depending on the employer, they may require proof of the allowances for adjustment before they accept the revised W-4. Proposed solutions 1 and 3 sound like extra work. Is a dual-file system something that you and your wife will be willing to maintain? Having separate files may better reflect your financial structure, but be sure that the expense of added time and overhead is worth it to you in the long run. You could track your own accounts, your wife's accounts, and your joint accounts in the same Money file (solution 2). Getting married can be a simple matter of adding the wife's accounts and recording transfers as money flows into joint accounts. This would make transfers between accounts easy to record and would afford easy reporting of overall income and spending. To maintain a degree of continuity for your own accounts, customize some reports to exclude your wife's accounts and joint accounts. A note about Microsoft Money I think Microsoft Money is fantastic and I have no plans to stop using it despite the fact that Microsoft killed the product line. All Money users should be made aware of the free Sunset version that requires no online activation. Also check out PocketSense, a collection of free Python scripts that can download transactions from some banks directly into Money. I use and highly recommend both. Talk to a tax professional. The IRS really doesn't like the deduction, and it's a concept (like independent contractors) that is often not done properly. You need to, at a minimum, have records, including timestamped photographs, proving that: Remember, documentation is key, and must be filed and accessible for a number of years. Poor record keeping will cost you dearly, and the cost of keeping those records is something that you need to weigh against the benefit. To clarify that legality of this (for those that question it), this is directly from IRS Publication 926 (2014) (for household employees): If you prefer to pay your employee's social security and Medicare taxes from your own funds, do not withhold them from your employee's wages. The social security and Medicare taxes you pay to cover your employee's share must be included in the employee's wages for income tax purposes. However, they are not counted as social security and Medicare wages or as federal unemployment (FUTA) wages. I am sorry this does not answer your question entirely, but it does verify that you can do this. UPDATE:  I have finally found a direct answer to your question!  I found it here: http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sh/ar01.html Form W-2 and Form W-3 If you file one or more Forms W-2, you must also file Form W-3. You must report both cash and noncash wages in box 1, as well as tips and other compensation. The completed Forms W-2 and W-3 in the example (in these instructions) show how the entries are made. For detailed information on preparing these forms, see the General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3. Employee's portion of taxes paid by employer.    If you paid all of your employee's share of social security and Medicare taxes, without deducting the amounts from the employee's pay, the employee's wages are increased by the amount of that tax for income tax withholding purposes. Follow steps 1 through 3 below. (See the example in these instructions.) Enter the amounts you paid on your employee's behalf in boxes 4 and 6 (do not include your share of these taxes). Add the amounts in boxes 3, 4, and 6. (However, if box 5 is greater than box 3, then add the amounts in boxes 4, 5, and 6.) Enter the total in box 1. "If you live outside the US, then you probably need to deal with foreign tax credits, foreign income exclusions, FBAR forms (you probably have bank account balances enough for the 10K threshold) , various monsters the Congress enacted against you like form 8939 (if you have enough banking and investment accounts), form 3520 (if you have a IRA-like local pension), form 5471 (if you have a stake in a foreign business), form 8833 (if you have treaty claims) etc ect - that's just what I had the pleasure of coming across, there's more. TurboTax/H&R Block At Home/etc/etc are not for you. These programs are developed for a ""mainstream"" American citizen and resident who has nothing, or practically nothing, abroad. They may support the FBAR/FATCA forms (IIRC H&R Block has a problem with Fatca, didn't check if they fixed it for 2013. Heard reports that TurboTax support is not perfect as well), but nothing more than that. If you know the stuff well enough to fill the forms manually - go for it (I'm not sure they even provide all these forms in the software though). Now, specifically to your questions: Turbo tax doesn't seem to like the fact that my wife is a foreigner   and doesn't have a social security number. It keeps bugging me to   input a valid Ssn for her. I input all zeros for now. Not sure what to   do. No, you cannot do that. You need to think whether you even want to include your wife in the return. Does she have income? Do you want to pay US taxes on her income? If she's not a US citizen/green card holder, why would you want that? Consider it again. If you decide to include here after all - you have to get an ITIN for her (instead of SSN). If you hire a professional to do your taxes, that professional will also guide you through the ITIN process. Turbo tax forces me to fill out a 29something form that establishes   bonafide residency. Is this really necessary? Again in here it bugs me   about wife's Ssn Form 2555 probably. Yes, it is, and yes, you have to have a ITIN for your wife if she's included. My previous state is California, and for my present state I input   Foreign. When I get to the state tax portion turbo doesn't seem to   realize that I have input foreign and it wants me to choose a valid   state. However I think my first question is do i have to file a   California tax now that I am not it's resident anymore? I do not have   any assets in California. No house, no phone bill etc If you're not a resident in California, then why would you file? But you might be a partial resident, if you lived in CA part of the year. If so, you need to file 540NR for the part of the year you were a resident. If you have a better way to file tax based on this situation could you   please share with me? As I said - hire a professional, preferably one that practices in your country of residence and knows the provisions of that country's tax treaty with the US. You can also hire a professional in the US, but get a good one, that specializes on expats."