I moved to the U.S. midyear and became resident by year-end. Can my spouse and I skip the dual-status return and file one full-year joint return instead?
I am originally from Brazil and moved to California in July for a startup role. By year-end I was a U.S. resident for tax purposes, but for the first half of the year I was clearly nonresident and earning salary only in Brazil. My spouse moved later and is now also here. Our combined income for the year is about $184,000.
Someone mentioned a special election that treats the whole year as resident instead of filing a dual-status return with separate statements. That sounds administratively easier, but I do not want to accidentally elect into something that makes the tax much worse.
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