How should a married couple with stay at home mom file taxes?
No, do not file as married filing separately, that is the absolute worst filing status!!! File as married filing jointly. No special considerations, other than if you have kids, and they are in day care you can't deduct child care expenses unles the wife has earned income. I've attached a link as to things you can't claim or that you lose by filing as married filing separately. Married taxpayers can choose between filing a joint tax return or a separate tax return. The Married Filing Separately filing status provides fewer tax benefits than filing joint returns, but taxpayers will need to weigh the pros and cons and decide for themselves which is the best filing status. If you are married, then you and your spouse can file separate tax returns. The married filing separately (MFS) filing status is the least beneficial of all the filing statuses. That's because MFS taxpayers are not eligible to claim the following tax benefits: Tuition and fees deduction Student loan interest deduction Tax-free exclusion of US bond interest Tax-free exclusion of Social Security Benefits Credit for the Elderly and Disabled Child and Dependent Care Credit Earned Income Credit Hope or Lifetime Learning Educational Credits MFS taxpayers also have lower income phase-out ranges for the IRA deduction. Additionally, MFS taxpayers must both claim the standard deduction or must both itemize their deductions. In other words, one MFS taxpayer cannot claim the standard deduction if the other spouse is itemizing.
Check bounced while on IRS payment plan.?
If you can show that you had reasonable cause to believe your check would clear and replace it with a good one, the IRS penalty for a bad check can be waived. It sounds like you do.
How do food stamps correspond with TANF? Are they the same thing? If not, how?
Food stamps and TANF go hand in hand. Once someone signs up to receive public assistance, i.e. a mother with children, she will receive the amount of food stamps for her household size, and a certain amount of “cash benefit” also depending on the size of her household. So a family of 5 could receive $750.00 in food stamps and $259.00 in cash assistance on their EBT cards each month for 45 months (life time benefit). Of course if you do not have children, or are male, you would not receive TANF (cash assistance), you would only receive food stamps (SNAP).
Should public schools make H1B holders pay for their kid's education?
H1B Visa holders are already paying the taxes just as an American citizen.We enter the US with a minimum of 16–18 years of Education (most of the times it's STEM), and are of ages 25–35 and have another 30–35 years of working age. We are probably the very few people who are as good as the American tax payers as we start paying from the day one and never depend on government or charities.Given the young age, most of us start families and raise kids as educated. It costs to raise a family.At least 25% of Salary / Income is paid for all kinds of taxes put togetherA conservative number would be 45% towards raising the family, housing and living cost.Miscellanious expenditure like travel, minimum shopping for family etc. takes easily 10%.That’s 80% of our hard earned money which we contribute to the economy of the society we are part of and living in.The remaining 20% would be invested and or spent for family needs there by contributing to the economy again.We have entered US legally, respected the law of the land and living by upholding the law.It takes $400000 to raise a kid all the way up to college. All we H1B’s save that amount for America and keep adding to the economy as we are productive from day 1.Unlike many immigrants we read about in the news, our law abiding nature makes us no nonsense people for the society and and we are verifiable , traceable for any investigation.Lowest or negligible % of crime by us.More importantly, the energy of a young soul , with higher education and experience doing highly skilled work is unmatched.Adding the young and skilled work force to the economy at no cost, what more does anyone need to support legal immigrants. I think the more one understands, the more supportive they are for this case. Anyone who doesn’t support, is merely because of the lack of awareness.I am sure, most of you would agree that H1B’s are part of America and no other that I know is more advantageous to the American society.ThanksSurendra