Tax : I am on H1B and wife on OPT.

[bhaskarbison]

Hello,
I am living in USA from Fall 2006 and i am on H1B visa. My wife is in USA from 2010 and is on OPT. In 2012, she was student for first 6 month and then was on OPT for 6 months. I was on H1B for full year 2012. We are filing married jointly tax and would like to know following things. Please help.
1. I am resident alien and she is non-resident alien. If we file together as married, can she get social security and medicare back?. or when we file as married, her status get change to resident alien and then she need to pay social security and medicare. Please help.
2. She was in school for 6 months. She got $1500 as stipend and her tuition was waived. We were living in two different states. I was paying for her school fee (other than tuition), rent and living. Can i claim her dependent for first 6 months?.Please answer.
Thank You
Bhaskar

[gregvath]

Bhaskar
If your wife first entered the U.S. with an F1 visa in 2010, you are correct that she is a nonresident for 2012 as her Visa status should not have changed from F1. You could file using married filing jointly by filing an election to treat a nonresident spouse as a resident. Depending on when you got married you could go back to 2009 and amend your returns this way. As for Social Security withholding she is exempt from this for the first 5 calendar years she is on F1 status, so until 2014 if she stays on F1, regardless of the above election. If Social Security and Medicare were withheld she would need to go through the employer to get refunded. I assume she is filing the Form 8843. She may have to include some benefits received from school as income. Some students will receive a 1042-S. A spouse may be claimed as a dependent in some circumstances but it is usually more beneficial to include her as your spouse filing married filing jointly. You would get a larger standard deduction.
greg