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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
I'm working and living overseas almost entire 2016, and may continue to be there for several years. My family stay with me overseas. I don't have any property in US, but have a valid driver license of MA. I also keep a mail address there (my friend's address). Should I file MA state tax return or file as a non resident status and don't file any state tax return? Thank you.
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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
chengdu123, for federal purposes you are a resident and therefore foreign earned income exclusion applies as long as you have a foreign tax home and foreign earned incoem.
The state issue is diferent -- as a resident of USA you must have residency somewhere ( in my old foreign assignment days I knew a lot of people establish residency in states with no income tax -- a PO box and driver's license). However there are lot of ExPats that do not have any connection with any state. States generally find this a lucrative tax item -- because the earnings are often high and therefore many states do not recognize the exclusion. However, absent any specific directive from your home state, as a US resident alien and with no in-state sourced income, there is not much your state can do to require a filing. This is true especially if you do not intend to come back to your home state. If you are not a resident of a state they cannot tax your world income , just in-state sourced income. I would suspect though that if you have previously filed MA returns and now don't , they will send you a notice of non-filing. All you have to do is tell them that you do not live in the state anymore -- this will mean you will lose your driver's license and when you come back have to take the written test again. That is my view.
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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
I'll also ask someone familiar with international filing to assist you in this thread.
@ pk or @ bine22 Are you able to assist in this thread when you get a chance? Thanks.
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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
chengdu123, for federal purposes you are a resident and therefore foreign earned income exclusion applies as long as you have a foreign tax home and foreign earned incoem.
The state issue is diferent -- as a resident of USA you must have residency somewhere ( in my old foreign assignment days I knew a lot of people establish residency in states with no income tax -- a PO box and driver's license). However there are lot of ExPats that do not have any connection with any state. States generally find this a lucrative tax item -- because the earnings are often high and therefore many states do not recognize the exclusion. However, absent any specific directive from your home state, as a US resident alien and with no in-state sourced income, there is not much your state can do to require a filing. This is true especially if you do not intend to come back to your home state. If you are not a resident of a state they cannot tax your world income , just in-state sourced income. I would suspect though that if you have previously filed MA returns and now don't , they will send you a notice of non-filing. All you have to do is tell them that you do not live in the state anymore -- this will mean you will lose your driver's license and when you come back have to take the written test again. That is my view.
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Do I claim a state of residence if I live and work overseas entire year?
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