@sg281 Namaste ji
(a) Because of the way TurboTax works, the easiest way to exclude an income is to recognize it as "other income " -- showing up on Schedule 1 line 1 z and follow that with an equal and negative number again as "other income" and line 1 z but with the "exclude per "US-India Tax treaty article XX". It is a clutzy way but it works. You have recognized the income and excluded it.
(b) Note that under the treaty and per US technical explanation , if you stay post two year duration as J-1, US has the right to collect back taxes on all the excluded income. India uses "may" whereas US interprets this as "shall/will". So please beware of this position / requirement.
It is possible for taxable income to become zero ( negative defaults to zero). For e-filing AGI must be a non-zero positive number.
Schedule-OI is not available for form 1040 --- your memo for the exclusion of income on line 1 z of Schedule-1should suffice.
Is there more I can do for you.
Namaste ji
pk
