I have been married since 2020 and I have been filing married filling separately due to my wife not having SSN and also non resident of the United State of America. I also got a son in 2021 and he also has no SSN. I have been doing None alien resident (NAR) for their SSN. Now that they are both here in the U.S and both have SSN, Can I amend my taxes for the past three years from married filing separately to married filing jointly and get a higher tax bracket. Can I claim my son and received some credit or get refund back?
February 22, 2024 8:06 AM last updated February 22, 2024 8:56 AM Connect with an expert
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Expert AlumniUnfortunately, no. The only returns for which your spouse's and child's social security number are valid are years after the social security number was issued. If their social security numbers were issued before the due date of the 2022 (April 17, 2023) return you could amend the return to include them on that but otherwise only on returns going forward.
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Yeah, Their SSN were issued 05/05/2023. I was hoping I could amend at least 2022 as the IRS is withholding around $10k for each year. That's a lot of money they taking from me.
February 22, 2024 9:13 AM Expert AlumniIf you filed an extension for your 2022 return, then it wouldn't have been due until October of 2023, then you would be able to amend your 2022 return. If you did not file an extension, then you would not be able to amend since the return was then due in April and you did not get the SSN until May.
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I think the expert is partially incorrect.
You can amend to MFJ, because that was always an allowed option. However, when filing MFJ, you must report and pay US tax on all your spouse's worldwide income, even from jobs outside the US, and even though it might be taxable in another country. (At the time, you would have been required to apply for an ITIN for your spouse, now you can use the SSN.) Whether this is a good idea or not probably depends on whether your spouse had taxable income in those years that was not previously declared to the IRS.
However, the expert is correct that certain specific tax benefits that might be available to US persons (citizens or green card holders), will not be available to your spouse or child, unless the SSN was issued before the deadline for a timely filed tax return (meaning April 15, or October 15 if you had an extension).
That means that even if you file amended returns to file MFJ, you won't be eligible for EITC, or the Child Tax Credit, or the pandemic stimulus rebates for your spouse or child. Also, Turbotax won't know they aren't eligible, so it will show those things as part of any additional refund you might claim even though the IRS will remove those items and recalculate any refund before it is paid. So it will be a bit trickier to figure out how much you might actually save by amending those past years.
