International student F-1 visa holders who are in OPT and are
physically present in the U.S. for 5
or fewer calendar years are exempt from the Substantial Presence Test
used to determine eligibility for being a resident alien for U.S. income tax
purposes: this means that you are considered a nonresident alien.
As a
nonresident alien you will need to file a Form
1040NR to report any
U.S.-source income you may have. TurboTax does not support Form 1040NR, so you will not
be able to use TurboTax for your specific tax situation.
You may want
to check out Sprintax , who are specifically geared towards
international student nonresident aliens with 1040NR filing requirements.
For more
information please see IRS Publication 519, US Tax Guide for Aliens:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf
As for obtaining a refund of the improperly withheld Social Security and Medicare taxes, if the company will not refund the withheld taxes to you, you can file a claim for refund with the Internal Revenue Service on Form 843, Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement.
For more information, see the folllowing IRS guide on Social Security Tax / Medicare Tax and Self-Employment:
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/social-security-tax-medicare-tax-and-self-em...
