2022 Non-resident Spouse MFS efile?

[dhoyt]

I have a client who got marreid at the end of 2022 to a woman who is not a US resident. They do not want to treat her as a US resident and she doesn't have a TIN. So he will be filing MFS with no TIN for the wife. I can't find anyway to do that in Proseries. Is it possible to efile? Or should I just print it out, write in NRA in the wife's tax ID number, and have him mail it in? He owes so its not like he is in a rush to get a refund or anything 😉

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Skylane · Accepted solution]

Agree…. Paperfile. She should apply for a TIN.

[TaxGuyBill]

I suspect you will need to paper file due to ProSeries limitations, but I would attempt to e-file it first.

I would enter NRA for the spouses last name (and leave the first name and SSN blank), then disable error-checking when filing the return.  From an IRS perspective, that hypothetically should work.  But be prepared for it to not work and paper file instead.

[dhoyt]

Thanks for the responses. Will probably just proceed with mail. Even if I could get e-file to work for fed, I'll still probably need to mail the State. Might as well just mail everything.

On a side note, we talked about the wife getting a TIN, but the process overwhelmed them. There is a bit of a language barrier, they are both out of the country currently, the idea of mailing in her passport to get the TIN scared them, etc. Plus MFS was pretty minimal difference in taxes owed. So they decided not to mess with it. I'm hoping they get her set up as resident before I have to deal with this next year.

Thanks again!