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MFS return - nonresident alien spouse, no SSN, no ITIN

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 23, 2021
3 replies
279 views

For an expat return with a US citizen married to a non-citizen: the non-citizen, naturally, does not have a SSN. He is not going to get an ITIN. They file married filing separate as required. They do not efile because the spouse does not have a social or an ITIN.

"NRA" is supposed to be in the SSN field for the non-citizen spouse. In CCH, we could put all 6's for the non-citizen and "NRA" would print.

I can type NRA into the social field but the return gives me very angry error messages.

Now, the return has to be paper filed anyway, but is there another way to handle this and get rid of the angry messages?

ProSeries Professional

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Best answer by itonewbie

I was so hopeful this would work! But if I put only NRA as the spouse's last name, no first name, no SSN obviously, I have errors for the first name and SSN fields. If I put in a first name I still have an error in the SSN field. When I go to HomeBase/E-file/Electronic Filing/ - all the choices are greyed out including Convert-transmit Returns & Extensions.

How do I get there?

@Username is two words I think the latest is that you need to remove "NRA" as the spouse's ITIN so that it'd blank and then go to EF Center to uncheck the box for "Enable conversion error checking" before e-filing.

sjrcpa

Level 15

I don't use ProSeries so I'm guessing.

Leave it blank in the software and then write/type it in manually?

The more I know the more I don’t know.

itonewbie

Level 15

If I recall, someone said in a previous discussion that you could disable conversion error checking to have the return e-filed. Perhaps you could give that a try before resorting to paper-filing?

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T

Terry53029

Intuit Community Champion

Not very familiar with this subject was just interested. I would think @itonewbie would know this subject from a-z. found this from IRS:

Social Security Number

If your spouse is a nonresident alien and you file a joint or separate return, your spouse must have either a Social Security Number (SSN) or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). To get an SSN for your spouse, apply at a social security office or U.S. consulate. You must complete Form SS-5. You must also provide original or certified copies of documents to verify your spouse's age, identity, and citizenship. If your spouse is not eligible to get an SSN, he or she can file Form W-7 with the IRS to apply for an ITIN. Refer to Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN) for more information.

Here is link: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/nonresident-alien-spouse

itonewbie

Level 15

@Terry53029 Thanks for flagging me. For MFS, there's no need for the NRA spouse to have an ITIN.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Still an AllStar

U

Username is two wordsAuthor

Level 5

Thanks for the replies. I read the paragraph from the link. How can a nonresident alien with no US source income, no ties whatsoever to the US except for marrying a citizen be compelled to get an ITIN? @itonewbie , what do you think of that paragraph?

To be able to efile, yes. But without that? I'd really like to know if the IRS has that power and what happens if the nonresident alien spouses don't get ITINs.

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