topic Married an F1 Visa, do we owe Social Security? in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Married an F1 Visa, do we owe Social Security?

RashinBrian — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 05:10:22 GMT

We're working on filing our taxes and are aware of most of the issues at hand (signed statement that she's a resident for tax purposes, have to mail the forms in, etc). However, I'm trying to figure out how exactly to handle her reported wages (has scholarship to study here, and earns some wages as a teaching assistant).

The school didn't withdraw taxes for Social Security and Medicare due to the F1 status. Will we have to pay that, now that we're treating her as a resident, or does the F1 status still take precedence? In either case, can Turbotax distinguish that difference, i.e. if she doesn't owe those taxes, will the program still try to deduct that?

Re: Married an F1 Visa, do we owe Social Security?

LoganathanB — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 18:25:56 GMT

You can talk to her school and explain to them that you have elected to treat her as a resident for tax purposes.

She becomes a resident and pays social security and medicare taxes. F1 status does not take precedence.

Turbotax will not deduct the missed social security and medicare taxes.

You can pay the missed social security taxes in the IRS.Gov website.

Click on the link for more information

See the limitation to exemptions in the link

Foreign Students Liability for Social Security Taxes

Re: Married an F1 Visa, do we owe Social Security?

RashinBrian — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 18:35:11 GMT

Thanks for helping make sense of that! We'll talk with the university, make sure that gets changed on their end to take out the tax.

You specified paying the SST separately on the website. Can that be done with Medicare as well? And should we pay those before filing taxes, or just at the same time?

Re: Married an F1 Visa, do we owe Social Security?

LoganathanB — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 19:04:34 GMT

Yes, you can pay medicare taxes also. Make sure it is for the correct year 2021 and for the correct person/SSN.

You pay before filing the tax return.

Re: Married an F1 Visa, do we owe Social Security?

RashinBrian — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 22:53:13 GMT

Learning more on this end. Seems since she's an employee of a public university here in Ohio, she is enrolled in OPERS, one of the state retirement systems. As such, money is already going in there, and she wouldn't be paying into social security anyway. Still leaves Medicare, though, and we'll need to ask about some paperwork.

Thanks for the help!