Can you claim the standard deduction when filing jointly with a non-resident alien spouse?

Yes, you can claim the standard deduction when filing jointly! This is actually one of the primary benefits of making the election to treat a nonresident alien spouse as a resident for tax purposes. When you make this election, you and your spouse are treated as U.S. residents for the entire tax year, and you file Form 1040 (not 1040NR). Since you're filing Form 1040 jointly, you get to claim the full standard deduction for married filing jointly, which for 2024 (filing in 2025) will be around $29,200. The trade-off is exactly what you mentioned - your wife will need to report her worldwide income, not just U.S. source income. This means any income she earned in her home country becomes taxable by the U.S. However, you may be able to exclude some foreign income or claim a foreign tax credit if she paid taxes on that income in another country.

Just wanted to share my experience with this exact situation! My husband is a US citizen and I was a non-resident alien when we first got married. We were completely confused about how to handle our taxes until I found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) which helped us understand our options. The tool analyzed our specific situation and confirmed we could file jointly AND take the standard deduction. It also showed us exactly how to make the election to treat me as a resident alien for tax purposes, which was super helpful because the form isn't obvious. What I liked is that it compared our tax liability both ways (separate vs. joint) so we could see which option saved us more money.

I was really skeptical about using online tools for our complicated tax situation, but I finally tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here. Holy crap, it was a game changer for us. My husband (US citizen) and I were filing separately which was costing us thousands in extra taxes. The system showed us how to properly make the election to file jointly, and even identified that we could amend our previous year's return to claim refunds we missed. What I appreciated most was that it gave us specific citations to IRS publications that confirmed we could take the standard deduction when filing jointly, which is exactly what the original poster was asking about. The tool actually found a tax treaty provision between the US and my home country (South Korea) that I had no idea existed, which saved us even more. Definitely worth checking out if you're in a mixed-residency marriage.

After trying for THREE DAYS to get through to the IRS about this exact question (standard deduction with NRA spouse), I finally used Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) and got connected to an actual IRS agent in under 15 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent confirmed that if you make the election to treat your non-resident alien spouse as a resident for tax purposes (by attaching a statement to your joint return), you file on Form 1040 and get the full standard deduction for married filing jointly. He also warned me about a common mistake people make - you have to include a specific statement with your tax return that both spouses sign. I wasted so much time trying to get this straightforward answer before using Claimyr. The IRS phone trees are literally designed to hang up on you when they're busy.

I have to admit I was totally wrong about Claimyr. After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to try it anyway because I was desperate to talk to the IRS about a similar immigration/tax situation. They got me connected to an actual IRS representative in about 12 minutes, while my previous attempts at calling directly had failed after 40+ minutes of waiting. The agent confirmed exactly what others have said here - when you elect to treat a non-resident spouse as a resident, you file Form 1040 jointly and get the full standard deduction. The agent also explained that this election continues automatically every year unless you formally revoke it. Wish I'd known about this service sooner - I've literally wasted days of my life trying to get through to the IRS over the years.

I'm in a similar situation but I'm the NRA spouse. One thing to consider that nobody mentioned - if you have significant assets in your home country, filing jointly exposes those to US tax reporting requirements like FBAR and FATCA. We ended up filing separately even though it cost us more in taxes because my foreign investments would have created huge compliance headaches.

Don't forget about state taxes too! My wife is a nonresident alien and we file jointly for federal, but some states have different rules. In California where we live, we had to file a separate nonresident state return for her foreign income even though we filed jointly for federal. Check your state's rules!

Just want to add another perspective here - we went through this exact situation last year and successfully filed jointly with the standard deduction. The key thing that helped us was understanding that the election to treat your NRA spouse as a resident is made simply by filing a joint return and including both spouses' worldwide income. You don't need to file any separate forms to make this election - it's automatic when you file Form 1040 jointly. However, you do need to attach a statement signed by both spouses saying you're making this election (this is the part many people miss). One tip: calculate both ways before deciding. We ran the numbers filing separately vs. jointly and the standard deduction savings from filing jointly more than offset the extra tax on my husband's foreign income. But every situation is different depending on income levels and what country the foreign income comes from (tax treaties matter!). The IRS Publication 519 has the clearest explanation of this if you want the official source, specifically the section on "Nonresident Spouse Treated as Resident.