Tax Residency

[bmjoshi]

Hi,

I entered the US as a doctoral student on F1 visa in 2015 and have lived in Florida for 2.5 years. However, as a part of the doctoral program I was working outside the US for a period of 3 years (01/18-04/21). During this time, I was paid by the US institution and I have been filing taxes in the US. In May 2021, I moved back to the US for graduation. After graduating in August 2021, I have been working as a postdoctoral researcher at another US university (Minnesota). I had a few question about filing taxes this year:

1) Does the 5-year exemption still apply to me?

2) I tried using Turbo tax and Sprintax and both give the same tax refund amounts. The only difference is Turbotax offers an additional $1400 (third stimulus). Am I eligible to receive the bonus?

3) I haven't been in the state of MN for 183 days. So, do I still have to file the state taxes this year?

Thank you!

[ErnieS0]

Your exempt status depends on what type of visa you currently hold. If you are on a J-1 visa, you would not be exempt because of the six-year lookback rule. Under that rule, you would have already used your two-years of exempt status.

If you are on an F-1 visa, you would be in your fourth exempt year: 2015, 2016 and 2017 (three years) plus 2021 (fourth year) so the five-year exemption would still apply.

See Example 3 in Alien - Exempt Individual Examples for J-1 explanation.

Nonresidents do not qualify for the third stimulus payment.

Minnesota

You do have to file a part-year Minnesota income tax return if you moved to MN and earned $12,525 during the year (both inside and outside of MN).

The 183-day rule does not apply if you moved to Minnesota and plan to stay for an indeterminate time period.

Minnesota says: “If you moved to Minnesota and planned to stay permanently, you’re a part-year resident regardless of how many days you spent in Minnesota.”

See: Part-Year Residents

[bmjoshi]

Hello,

Thank you for the explanation. I will proceed to file the taxes accordingly using Sprintax.