Clearly there wouldn’t have been any tax forms then, because such forms are usually sent out at the beginning of the following year, which is now.
I had the opposite problem in 2019 was high, 2018 was low. I wonder if they’ll go with 2018 in your case or wait. I was kicking myself for filing in Oct. now that they changed thresholds. I wonder if they’ll keep the same thresholds for $1400 Biden prop.
Also re: paper filing, IRS hasn’t confirmed receipt of my PY paper return (USPS says 10/14/21) Someone said it’s taking them upto 6 months!!, probably based on location (Mine is Fresno)
Now that the stimulus amounts are getting higher (likely) we might even file for my green card parents who don’t make enough to file typically. Any gotchas?
Yeah according to my certified mail receipt, they picked mine up from the USPS in the first week of July. Still not processed, so 6+ months sounds right.
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I wish IRS at least acknowledge receipt other than USPS
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If you claimed them as dependents before, you would lose a $500 tax credit for dependent care maybe?
That’s the case for our daughters whom we had as dependents on our tax returns until this year. I think the stimulus will make it worth for them to file on their own. We’ll lose the $500 per kid tax credit but they should get $1800 in unpaid stimulus checks. I’ll definitely do both calculations this time around.
I may file later this year as well waiting to see what the terms of the next stimulus are going to be before making the decision to claim them as dependent or not.
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Is there any concern about receipt of government funds? I know only enough about immigration to know that there can be concerns about taking welfare-type government funds (not saying this is a welfare-type fund, or that there are any concerns here, or what those concerns actually are; just don’t know).
Is there any concern about receipt of government funds? I know only enough about immigration to know that there can be concerns about taking welfare-type government funds (not saying this is a welfare-type fund, or that there are any concerns here, or what those concerns actually are; just don’t know).
Do green card holders face blowback from other refundable tax credits?
I don’t know. Jesse asked for any gotchas, and that’s something I would look into if I was in that position.
I do know that sponsors have to show ability to pay/support someone and immigration documents ask questions about whether someone has received certain government benefits (not sure on the specific language of the questions).
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I don’t know. Jesse asked for any gotchas, and that’s something I would look into if I was in that position.
I do know that sponsors have to show ability to pay/support someone and immigration documents ask questions about whether someone has received certain government benefits (not sure on the specific language of the questions).
Well, in this case, the clear analog would be the stimulus payments from the GFC (they were also refundable tax credits, weren’t they?) – and the more mundane child tax credit.
No we haven’t yet. Will do it when they move in with us to keep it clean. They go back/forth from abroad and are stuck abroad now
Taking the stimulus check doesn’t count under public charge rules, since it’s a tax credit (like the EIC). AILA - Practice Alert: COVID-19 and the Public Charge Rule
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No bearing with stimulus vs welfare (which I intend to look in to as well since I might apply for Medicaid for them since they didn’t pay into Medicare (lived abroad) )
You don’t have to “pay into Medicare” to qualify for Medicare. It’s citizenship or continuous residency (5 yrs) plus either age (65) or disability. Wiki.
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IIRC, (and this info is over a decade old) when you apply for your green card, you have to show the ability to support yourself or use a sponsor who has that ability. You also have to agree to not take welfare type payments for a certain number of years.
From the number of green card holders that I know who applied for and received food stamps/free school lunches/medicaid, etc., there doesn’t appear to be any enforcement.
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I was talking about Medicare Part A premiums being waived. .Continuous residency was broken by Covid being stuck abroad 
but they’ve been GC holders since the 90’s
I don’t think MediCaid has any restrictions other than income (which they won’t have any and will be my dependent )
That’s because there’s nothing to enforce – those are not considered a public charge. See Cato Institute article:
ETA: it also depends on the status. Not everyone with a green card is required to have a sponsor (who may be ultimately held responsible for the “public charge”).
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Diversity visa immigrants come to mind as those who would not have a sponsor nor any requirement to forgo applying for welfare benefits.
Although this is from nearly 20 years ago so the public charge part may have changed since then (also I had my employer as sponsor), I don’t recall making any promise not to receive any welfare for a given number of years. To apply, you have to show that you are unlikely to become a public charge which for me was my company anticipating to keep me employed (and I was a homeowner by then too). But that’s all I remember. And there were very few benefits I could actually have applied for as non-permanent resident so it would have been very hard for me to have received welfare prior to actually becoming green card holder (and thus being inadmissible).
Plus receiving some benefits may not be enough to trip that public charge rule which IIRC was to receive 12 months of benefits within a 3 year period. Say if you received unemployment benefits between jobs for a few weeks here and there, that may not amount to more than 12 months of benefits. And then I think there’s the issue of oversight and enforcement. It may be very difficult to keep track of which permanent resident is receiving what and for how long, to the point where it’s practically not enforced.
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Who at the IRS decided to nerf Publication 17? Many chapters have been removed, but now the book is basically swiss cheese instead of a relatively comprehensive guide to the IRS’s view of tax policy. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf
Wow! Thanks for the info. I can now kick my wife out and let her go on food stamps and get Medicaid … right after we move to a non-alimony state. 
ETA: for the [identity choice here], it was a joke.