Us Tax Law Question

[butterisbetter]

I want to know if I can claim my Thai stepdaughter as my dependent for the year 2007. She does live with us in Thailand and I pay for all her expenses. During 2007, when my stepdaugher was 7 years old, she and my wife accompanied me to the United States for a period of 30 days. Would that satisfy the residency requirement imposted by the IRS and hence qualify her as a dependent of mine?

[willyumcr]

Does she have a Social Security or TIN number? Need that to file.

[MyphuketLife]

Does she have a Social Security or TIN number? Need that to file.

with out a SSN number you can't file the kid. Even if it your blood kid, until you get the SSN. I had the same issue with my son, so I filed, got the SSN, then re-filed.

[noise]

Does she have a Social Security or TIN number? Need that to file.

with out a SSN number you can't file the kid. Even if it your blood kid, until you get the SSN. I had the same issue with my son, so I filed, got the SSN, then re-filed.

Technically, it is a Tax Identification Number, not a SSN. Service the same purpose with the IRS, but of no other use that I know of.

ASIDE: A Thai woman friend of my wife had daughter was studying in the U.S. who needed her mother's SSN to verify her income was low enough that the daughter could get financial assistance (daughter being a U.S. citizen by her father). Since the mother had never lived in the U.S., all she had was the TIN. And the TIN showed up as an invalid number (prefix not used by SSNs) and the financial assistance was held up while this was explained and the institution thought about it. Just using this as an example of the limited use of the TIN.

[NanLaew]

^ No, it IS a social security number. It's just the IRS hijacked it as a quick and dirty way to identify everyone. Technically... possibly legally, nobody but yourself and the Social Security Admin should need to know what your SSN is but that went out the window a long time before the civil liberties people were hatched.

Correct on TIN's, virtually useless except that it does get you on yet another government database which must be a good thing eh?

[willyumcr]

Does she have a Social Security or TIN number? Need that to file.

with out a SSN number you can't file the kid. Even if it your blood kid, until you get the SSN. I had the same issue with my son, so I filed, got the SSN, then re-filed.

Technically, it is a Tax Identification Number, not a SSN. Service the same purpose with the IRS, but of no other use that I know of.

ASIDE: A Thai woman friend of my wife had daughter was studying in the U.S. who needed her mother's SSN to verify her income was low enough that the daughter could get financial assistance (daughter being a U.S. citizen by her father). Since the mother had never lived in the U.S., all she had was the TIN. And the TIN showed up as an invalid number (prefix not used by SSNs) and the financial assistance was held up while this was explained and the institution thought about it. Just using this as an example of the limited use of the TIN.

My wife who is a Costa Rican National was issued an Social Security number in 1989. Step daughter (whom I adopted) at the time aslo received a Social Security number at that time. However since 9/11 I understand they no longer issue Social Security numbers to non citzens and instead issue TIN (tax information number) to forign nationals. These need to be used to claim as dependent on your income tax.

[willyumcr]

Does she have a Social Security or TIN number? Need that to file.

with out a SSN number you can't file the kid. Even if it your blood kid, until you get the SSN. I had the same issue with my son, so I filed, got the SSN, then re-filed.

Technically, it is a Tax Identification Number, not a SSN. Service the same purpose with the IRS, but of no other use that I know of.

ASIDE: A Thai woman friend of my wife had daughter was studying in the U.S. who needed her mother's SSN to verify her income was low enough that the daughter could get financial assistance (daughter being a U.S. citizen by her father). Since the mother had never lived in the U.S., all she had was the TIN. And the TIN showed up as an invalid number (prefix not used by SSNs) and the financial assistance was held up while this was explained and the institution thought about it. Just using this as an example of the limited use of the TIN.

My wife who is a Costa Rican National was issued an Social Security number in 1989. Step daughter (whom I adopted) at the time aslo received a Social Security number at that time. However since 9/11 I understand they no longer issue Social Security numbers to non citzens and instead issue TIN (tax information number) to forign nationals. These need to be used to claim as dependent on your income tax.

<h3 id="siteSub">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</h3> Jump to: navigation, search It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Internal Revenue Service. (Discuss) An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (or ITIN) is a United States tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service. It is a nine-digit number that begins with the number 9 and has a 7 or 8 in the fourth digit, i.e. 9xx-7x-xxxx or 9xx-8x-xxxx. The IRS issues ITINs to individuals who are required to have a taxpayer identification number but who do not have, and are not eligible to obtain, a Social Security Number.

ITINs are issued regardless of immigration status because both resident and nonresident aliens may have Federal tax return and payment responsibilities under the Internal Revenue Code. Individuals must have a filing requirement and file a valid federal income tax return to receive an ITIN, unless they meet an exception.

In 2006 1.4 million people used ITIN when filing taxes. Federal tax law prohibits the IRS from sharing data with other government agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, ensuring illegal immigrants that the tax information will be confidential and not be used to deport them.^[1]

ITINs are also used by real estate brokers to facilitate mortgages for legal and illegal immigrants.[2

[butterisbetter]

All this chatter about ITIN gets it in exactly the wrong order. I am trying to determine whether my stepdaughter would in fact be eligible for that number. A temporary number in her case. And for her to eligible she would have to qualify as a resident for tax purposes in the year of 2007

[NanLaew]

^ Anything to do with US tax claims, liabilities, refunds that involves a non- US citizen or legally resident alien will require a TIN.

I doubt that 30 days in 7 years will be considered in any way resident for tax purposes.

Also not that it's not temporary, once assigned, it's for life.