Dual Status Return - questions on the nitty gritty of the filing process.

[qxt70]

Background: Dual status filing for married clients. They abandoned US permanent residency during 2018.  Non residents on 12/31/18. Qualified for earlier residency termination date. Filing 1040 MFS for earlier part of year when they are residents. And filing 1040NR MFS for later part of year when they are non residents. Having read Pub 519, I understand that the 1040NR ("Dual-Status Return" on top) with no payment needs to be mailed in the Austin TX xxxxx-xxxx. But what about the 1040 return from the resident part of the year?

Does the 1040 needs also be mail in or can that be efiled?

If the 1040 needs to mail in, I assume to mail it to the regular regional address for 1040 for regular processing and not the Austin address for dual-status return processing, correct?

　

　

　

[itonewbie · Accepted solution]

The filing requirements differ depending on whether your client is a long-term resident and, if so, whether your client is a covered expatriate.  If either is true, the return should be mailed to Philadelphia, PA 19255-0049 rather than the usual address.  Unless your client is mailing the return within the US by USPS, PDS should always be used as proof of mailing would otherwise not be recognized by the IRS; delivery addresses for PDS are different but correspond to the regular service centers.

As for 1040, it should not be separately filed.  It is actually a statement that supports the 1040NR return.  It would appear to me that you may not have prepared the return correctly and may not be familiar with the reporting requirements for expatriation.

You may like to spend more time studying the relevant materials before reviewing the return again or consider farming it out to someone who specializes in expatriate/foreign national taxation.

[qxt70]

Thank you for your answer. My clients are not LTR and not subject to the expatriation tax. I did initially read Pub 519 and LaCerte instructions on Dual-Status to mean for my clients' situation as filing the 1040NR as dual-status return with the 1040 as attaching statement. But was unsure how IRS actually process both the 1040NR and 1040 since the 1040 was filed as attaching statement. What threw me off was when I asked another tax preparer who said  to "file both" and "essentially double returns processed separately." I misunderstood that to mean filing both separately. But your answer, as well some further research, helped provide needed clarity. Again, thanks.

[itonewbie]

Glad it helps.  Was just worried about the downstream implications if green card abandonment is not done right.  Looks like this is good to go.