Married Filing Separately with Non resident spouse no TIN

[swongtax]

Can someone confirm if the instructions below is correct to use "NRA" if the non - resident alien spouse does not have TIN and lives overseas?

When your spouse is a non-resident residing overseas and does not have an SSN or ITIN,  and you want to file your tax return using Married Filing Separately status......

-In the program, as you enter the information, leave the SSN space blank

-After you complete entering all the required information, print out returns and required forms.  Enter “NRA” in the space    for Spouse's identifying number. ( NRA stands for Nonresident Alien) Do not leave the space blank. 

-Submit all the forms and required documents to IRS based on the instructions on your print-out.

Sui

[itonewbie]

PS does not support e-filing with NRA as SSN.  Your only option is to paper-file the return.

[GFS]

Is there an Efile option or workaround available when spouse is non-resident and has no ITIN?  Please help

[sjrcpa]

Maybe with other software.

[itonewbie]

PTO offers PPR and can efile MFS without any TIN from NRA spouse.

[GFS]

I'm sorry, Which company is PTO?

[itonewbie]

No worries, PTO is ProConnect Tax Online from Intuit.  It's a cloud-based tax product from Intuit and runs on the Lacerte engine (except it lacks various features from Lacerte and feels clunkier).

[JU]

Does ProSeries Professional offer the same feature as PTO and Lacerte to efile MFS with a foreign spouse without a SSN/ITIN? Or does it have the same limitation as ProSeries Basic? Is there any plan to fix that in future versions?

[itonewbie]

My understanding is that Basic and Professional have the same limitation in this regard.

As to whether they will fix that in the future?  The safe answer is they might.  I learned never to say never.  But seriously, we are just fellow users like you, so we don't have any insight as to what Intuit may or may not do.

[brianalanlang]

It it sad that you feel obligated to answer when you don't know the answer, you must have better things to do then give incorrect information....

As in ProSeries/Lacerte, you can efile a MFS return with a NRA spouse.

1. Under General > Misc. Info./Direct Deposit, click on the Miscellaneous tab
2. Scroll down to the line for Spouse is a nonresident and does not have an SSN/ITIN (MFS Only) and check the box.

[itonewbie]

@brianalanlang What you described is from Lacerte/PTO, which is consistent with the responses above.  Not so sure about ProSeries...

[brianalanlang]

In ProSeries, leave the SSN blank for the NRA.   When efiling, disable "enable conversion error checking"

[Puravidacpa]

Brian -- thank you so much for that helpful information. I was not even aware of that checkbox. By leaving the ssn field blank in the Client info for the NRA spouse, Lacerte automatically enters NRA with the check box clicked. Thanks again!

[MGM59]

Please explain how to disable the "enable conversion error checking"

[itonewbie]

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@MGM59 wrote:

Please explain how to disable the "enable conversion error checking"

---

@MGM59This thread is not about conversion.  Please start a new thread of your own and provide some context as well as more details about your question so that someone may stop by to help.

[brianalanlang]

Yes, you can certainly efile a return in ProSeries and ProConnect with a NRA spouse.

[wmkwmk]

Hey Brian...wanted to see if that option for e-filing as MFS with an NRA spouse and no SS# still works for the '21 Pro Series product. I do not see "Misc/Direct Dep" under General tab so I cannot check the applicable non-resident box for the spouse.

Not sure if they moved it to another place, whether I am just not looking in correct spot or whether Pro Series no longer supports this for '21. Thanks in advance for the help.

[brianalanlang]

Sadly, this option is for ProConnect not ProSeries.  However, Despite what other posters may say (who have amazing amount of free time as they think they are an expert and thus comment on everything and anything even when they have no idea), more importantly, you can still efile a MFS return with a NRA spouse in ProSeries.  It is a little more complicated though.  Before you efile, remove NRA from the spouse's SSN so it is blank.  You then need to efile from the EF Center of the Homebase screen and, most importantly, uncheck "Enable conversion error checking".    

Hopefully they are getting a refund so you can track it on irs.gov/refunds but this trick does work as I have been using it for years.  The Ack will say accepted by the IRS as well.

[AstroCPA]

for federal purposes there is a work-around. see the PS line instructions for MFS when spouse is NRA with no SSN. however, this process does not appear to work for states, at least, not MD.

[LoraKS]

Hi Brian,

More questions about the efiling MFS with an NRA spouse. 1. Will the federal tax return be noted as "accepted" and a transmission ID available?  2. My case is also needs to file a California tax return.  Will the California tax return be accepted for processing by the FTB?  3. What are the consequences of unchecking "enable conversion error checking"?

thank you,

Lora

[brianalanlang]

You cannot efile a 540 with a NRA.

[LoraKS]

Thank you