Omg this is so important! We learned this the hard way last year. Saved $600 on taxes by filing jointly but my wife's student loan payment went up $175/month. Do the math before you decide!

You're absolutely right about doing the full calculation. A lot of people miss this part of the equation. The student loan impact can completely change what looks like a good decision based solely on taxes. In our case, filing separately costs us about $800 more in taxes each year, but saves my wife nearly $2,400 annually on her income-based student loan payments. That's a net benefit of $1,600 by filing separately, even though it looks worse on paper tax-wise.

This is a really good point. If your spouse is tutoring in people's homes on a regular schedule and they control when and how the work is done, they might qualify as a household employee. This means the family should be paying half of the Social Security and Medicare taxes instead of your spouse covering it all through self-employment tax.

Do you have any recommendations for tracking business expenses throughout the year? I'm always scrambling at tax time trying to remember what was business vs personal, especially for things like my cell phone bill.

I use QuickBooks Self-Employed which automatically categorizes expenses from my linked accounts and lets me swipe left/right on transactions to mark them as business or personal. Saved me tons of time versus my old spreadsheet method. For mixed-use items like cell phones, I set calendar reminders to check my usage every quarter and document the business percentage. Most tax pros will tell you it's better to track consistently throughout the year than try to estimate everything at tax time. I also take photos of all receipts with the app so I don't have to keep paper copies.

I ran the numbers on this last year. The excise tax is 10%, so on $4,000 that's $400. But if you don't correct it, that excess contribution keeps getting hit with the 10% EVERY YEAR until you fix it. It compounds into a huge problem over time.

19 For actual income or deduction changes, you would need to file an amended return using Form 1040-X. Unlike the 1095-C situation, missing investment income absolutely needs to be reported through an amendment. You can prepare an amended return through most tax software, though some charge extra for this service. File it as soon as you can to minimize any potential interest or penalties. If you owe additional tax, pay it when you file the amendment to stop further interest from accruing.

11 I used eztaxreturn for an amendment last year. It's doable but not as streamlined as their regular filing process. You have to essentially recreate your return and then identify what changed. They charge an additional fee too (I think it was around $30 when I did it). But in this case, since the 1095-C doesn't change anything tax-wise, you shouldn't need to amend at all.

Would reporting it as taxable when it could be exempt cause any issues with visa status or future immigration applications? I've always heard we should be very careful about tax compliance with student visas.

Reporting potentially exempt income as taxable generally won't cause any immigration issues. Immigration authorities are primarily concerned with tax compliance (that you filed when required), not whether you paid slightly more tax than necessary. In fact, it's often considered safer from an immigration perspective to pay tax when in doubt rather than claiming exemptions incorrectly. The risk would be in the other direction - claiming exemptions you're not entitled to could potentially be viewed as tax avoidance. So if you're uncertain and the amounts are small, paying the tax is usually the safest approach.

You need to file both forms. Form 8843 is required for all F-1 students to document your presence in the US and your exempt status, even if you have no income. Form 1040-NR is the actual tax return you file to report income and calculate any tax owed. So in your case with 1042-S income, you'd file both the 8843 and the 1040-NR. They serve different purposes but are both part of your complete tax filing as an F-1 student.

We got married on December 18th. So based on what others have said, I guess that means I'm considered married for the entire 2024 tax year since we were married on December 31st? Even if she's still in the Philippines?

Yep, December 18th means you're definitely considered married for the entire 2024 tax year. The IRS only cares about your status on December 31st - whether you were married for 11 months or 2 weeks doesn't matter for determining filing status. And yes, this applies even though your wife is still in the Philippines. Her physical location doesn't change your marital status for tax purposes. The more important question will be whether she's a US resident for tax purposes (probably not yet) and whether she has a SSN or ITIN for filing.

You don't need your spouse to be physically present in the US to get an ITIN. When I got one for my wife (from Vietnam), I submitted Form W-7 along with our tax return and certified copies of her passport. You can also use a Certified Acceptance Agent who can verify the documents without sending originals. The whole process took about 8 weeks for us.