I am a postdoctoral research fellow on a J-1 visa, and I received a 1042-S form from Columbia University. As a Spanish citizen who has been here for 3 years (i.e., less than 5 years), I am aware of the existence of a Spanish tax treaty regarding the 1042-S, exempting me from both Federal and NY state taxes. The Income code reported in this form is 16, Box 3a "exemption code" of this form is 04; and box 4a "exemption code" is 16.
I´ve been following the method mentioned by @AmyC to report the income from my 1042-S in the Other Income as follows:
- Click on Federal on the left-hand side of your screen
- Click on Wages & Income
- Scroll down to Less Common Income
- Scroll down to Miscellaneous Income, 1099-A, etc
- Click on Start or Update
- Scroll all the way down to Other Reportable Income
- Click on Start
- Add a Miscellaneous income item
- Click Continue and Click Add Another Miscellaneous Income Item
- Enter your treaty exemption as a negative number.:
- The amounts will offset to zero. You will be able to see both entries and descriptions on Schedule 1 of your tax return.
However, I have a few concerns and questions:
Employer/Withholding Agent Information:
This method doesn’t include any fields for entering the employer or withholding agent (e.g., Columbia University), nor does it allow me to specify the treaty exemption codes. Is that a problem for proper filing?
New York State Return – Unexpected Refund:
Although Columbia already applied the tax treaty benefits and withheld $0 in taxes, TurboTax shows that I’m eligible for a $63 refund on my NY State return. This seems confusing, as I didn’t pay any state taxes to begin with.
Thank you very much for your help!
