What Happens When You Marry a Nonresident Alien for U.S. Tax Purposes?
By Anthony Diosdi Many Americans that reside outside the United States marry a non-American and remain overseas. This often results in confusion when it comes to filing a U.S. individual income tax return. Americans often do not know what filing status they can claim on their U.S. tax returns and how to treat the foreign spouse’s income. This brief article discusses the basic rule in both cases. However, this article does not discuss the filing of any required foreign information returns such as FBARs or IRS Form 8938s.If an American marries a spouse that has not been awarded a green card or if the spouse is a nonresident alien for U.S. tax purposes, the American taxpayer has two options.First, the American can treat his or her spouse as a resident…