How to amend 1040 if I received a Form 1042-S after filing federal and state tax returns?

[ly-ly]

I am a resident alien for tax purposes.  I am on an F1 visa.  I have filed my 2020 federal and state tax returns and have received my refunds.  After I filed, I received a Form 1042-S from my school.  Some information from that form: Box 1: 16.  Box 3a: 04.  Box 3b: 0.  Box 4a: 16.  Box 4b: 0.  Box 7a: 0.  Box 10: 0.  Do I need to amend my 1040?  If yes, how do I do it on turbotax?  Thanks a lot!

[LinaJ2020]

Yes, very likely you need to amend unless the edition does not change your total refund.

As a resident alien on a F-visa, by receiving a Form 1042- S with the code 16, you will treat it as receiving a scholarship or fellowship to offset your qualified education expenses if there are any.  Per IRS, you are required to file a Form 1040 to report your scholarship amount along with your tuition.  Without a Form 1098-T, if you have paid any qualified tuition expenses out of pocket or with scholarship, you would enter information by following these steps:

In TurboTax online,

• Follow the amendment process, see blue links below. 
• At the right upper corner, in the search box, type in 1098t and Enter 
• Select Jump to form 1098T 
• Follow prompts

To see how to amend your taxes, click here: 

Steps to amend in TurboTax

How to file amendment

[ly-ly]

@LinaJ2020 Thanks a lot!  Boxes 3b and 4b (tax rate) of my Form 1042-S are both 0.  My understanding of what this means is that the income shown in Form 1042-S is not taxable, and, as a consequence, the edition does not change my total refund.  Is this correct?  If yes, then by what you said, I do not need to amend.  But am I correct that I am required to report all my income to the IRS?  If I do not amend, how do I report the income shown in Form 1042-S to the IRS?  I am a bit confused.

[LinaJ2020]

Your information tells me that your income is nontaxable due to a tax treaty.  You will still need to report to the IRS as a nontaxable event. 

Here are the steps:

In TurboTax online,

• Enter your Form 1098-T as usual. See steps above. This will generate a taxable event.
• Then enter the treaty-exempt amount as negative amount (e.g. -5000) under Federal Taxes / Less Common Income / Miscellaneous Income 1099A, 1099C / Other Reportable Income
• Download and fill in a Form 8833 to claim an exception.  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8833.pdf
• You cannot e-file.  You can still use the TurboTax program to prepare your tax forms, but you need to print them out and submit them to IRS by mail along with Form 8833. 

[ly-ly]

@LinaJ2020 Thank you very much again!  Your answer is very helpful.  One more question: I am a resident of Illinois.  Since the edition does not change my federal tax liability, am I correct that I do not need to ament my Illinois state tax return?

[LinaJ2020]

Most likely it will not change your state's outcome.  However I will suggest you to contact Illinois to verify.  For contact, click here:  Your state