@user17553787901 , you have lost me here ---as I see the US-India Tax Treaty and the technical explanation there of , there is no such "Exemption " from tax especially the US$15,000 you are quoting. Please can you provide a source -- ( I know China has a US$5000 per year exemption.
My source is US-India Tax treaty -- see here ---- India - Tax treaty documents | Internal Revenue Service.
Specifically article 21 of the said treaty --
1. A student or business apprentice who is or was a resident of one of the Contracting States
immediately before visiting the other Contracting State and who is present in that other State principally
for the purpose of his education or training shall be exempt from tax in that other State, on payments
which arise outside that other State for the purposes of his maintenance, education or training.
2. In respect of grants, scholarships and remuneration from employment not covered by paragraph
1, a student or business apprentice described in paragraph 1 shall, in addition, be entitled during such
education or training to the same exemptions, reliefs or reductions in respect of taxes available to
residents of the State which he is visiting.
3. The benefits of this Article shall extend only for such period of time as may be reasonable or
customarily required to complete the education or training undertaken.
What this does for students from India , are two things --- 1. any stipends, awards. gifts from India are not taxed as long as these are for purposes of schooling/training ( education and living ) and 2. even during the NRA days the student is given the same rights / deductions etc. as a US domestic student -- thus you use standard deduction and not forced to use itemized deduction.
Does this make sense ? I am very interested in finding out how you got that "exemption from tax" figure. Really would like to chase it down.
Namaste ji
pk
