I have a specific case,
Recently, in March 2025, my wife and I reported "jointly" with TurboTax. As second-year international student (J1) and spouse (J2), we thought it was okay to report jointly and we believed that we'd get two benefits: First, we'd get some deductions as a married couple and, second, as international students from a country (Indonesia) that has a treaty with the US (usually, some or all of my income would be "non-taxable"). See here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/indo.pdf. Several days after the report, XX amount of money was taken from my bank account.
However, after we learned that we were counted as "non-resident aliens" (because my residence period cannot pass the substantial presence test) and that we had to report "separately," we planned to amend the report. However, from my understanding, TurboTax cannot facilitate 1040-NR, and we were afraid that our tax treaty would not be recognized by TurboTax and, consequently, that we would lose our benefits. At the end of March 2025, we decided to call a TurboTax agent to ask whether we could amend it as "non-resident alien," and she said, "Yes."
In early April 2024, when I amended our reports into my own report (by deleting all my wife's files from TurboTax), I could not find any indication that TurboTax recognized my tax treaty benefit. However, I submitted the amended report (1040-X) anyway and still could not find any indication that I would get the benefit. The 1040-X file shows that the IRS will return XX amount (that was taken from me previously) in addition to YY amount (perhaps some parts from withheld money). Several days later, the report was accepted by the federal government, and I am now in the waiting moment (google says that it will take up to 20 weeks)
Questions:
1. Does TurboTax know that I am actually reporting 1040-NR after I made a mistake (1040)?
2. If so, does TurboTax know that Indonesia has a tax treaty with the US and, consequently, I should get the benefit once I successfully report as a "non-resident alien"?
3. How do I know that my reports are correct (international students, married, reporting separately, and enjoying benefits from a tax treaty)?
Thanks for your attention.
