Hi,
I am a Canadian Citizen and Married. I started working in the US at the end of June 2014. My wife goes back and fort between the US and Canada. I filled my taxes (joint filling) and added her (Spouse) as an exemption. However, the IRS reduced the return by reducing the number of exemptions to 1.

I applied for ITIN for her at the same time as filling my taxes. My question is, did IRS make a mistake or I was not allowed not to claim her as exemption?

Thanks for your help in advance.
Maysam

I applied for ITIN for her at the same time as filling my taxes. My question is, did IRS make a mistake or I was not allowed not to claim her as exemption? ========>>>>>>>>>>>>>Are you/ or your spouse a US resident for tax purposes, if yes, even if one of you, then yes you can claim 2 personal exemption , you and your spouse, If not, then no; Generally, you cannot file as married filing jointly if either spouse was a non-resident alien at any time during the tax year of 2014. However, non-resident alien married to U.S. citizen or resident can choose to be treated as U.S. residents and file joint returns and can claim 2 personal exemption for both wife and husband.If not, non resident alien can file US return only as single and can not take standard dedcution but must itrmize dedcutions on SCh A of 1040nr on State and local income taxes, Casualty and theft losses or etc..

sorry ; it is my bad; as a canadian citizen, you can claim an exemption for a spouse and a dependent as your spouse is a resident of Mexico or Canada or a national of the United States.please contact the irs to let them know of this.

Thank you very much . Do I call IRS, or contact them through mail? Is it like an audit? is there any downside in contacting them regarding this issue?
Regards
Meysam

#1; yes either one of them.you can call the IRS;Your wait time could be between 30 minutes and an hour; you can contact/visit Your Local IRS Office. to claim your spouse's personal exemption, the spouse had no gross income in 2014 and you provided over half of your spouse's support for 2014. note; you can not claim your spouse as your dependent but you can claim her personal exemption of $3,950 for 2014.Spouses are not dependents of each other. but many people misunderstand this concept.



#2;no it is not an audit: an audit is when a "red flag" appears on your return. either something has been put on there is raising questions or it doesn't add up right;


no any downside at all no worry.