What is the difference between form 8843 and 8833?

[fay]

Which should I fill if I am an F1 student but on the 6th year? How about people with OPT or H1B visa? Thanks!

[LinaJ2018 · Accepted solution]

Form 8843 is a Statement for Exempt Individuals who use to show they are not counting their days within the US.  Form 8833 is a form you file to claim tax treaty benefit.

In your situation, you might not need the Form 8843.  On the 6th year on your F visa, you have already passed the five years exempt period.  Starting from January 1st, 2019, if you stay more than 183 days within the US, you will be a resident.  You do not file the Form 8843.  If you do not stay more than 183 days, you will still be a nonresident then you need to file Form 8843 to show your exempt status. 

As far as the Form 8833, you only need to file this form if there is a tax treaty applies to you and you need to file to show the reduction of your income.  

For people with OPT or H-1B visa, this happens usually on the 6th year of the F-visa ( not sure if this applies to you), you switch to H-1B later in the year.  In this case, you do not need Form 8843 as most likely you have stayed more than 183 days in the year ( while on the F and H-visa) hence you are a resident.  You only need to file Form 8833 if there is a treaty benefit. 

[luckyremy]

Hi I'm in a similar situation that I just realized that I should submit Form 8833 with my 1040. However, on my 1040 I did enter in a negative number for the total amount of the tax treaty exemption being claimed on Line 21 (Other Income), with the note that U.S. {country} tax treaty, Article {article number}, and also attached Page 5 of the Form 1040NR to the back of the Form 1040 with my name, SSN, Question L filled and "Resident Alien with Tax Treaty Exemption" written down at the top. I also provided my 1042s for this tax treaty.

So anything else is corrected, but I just didn't know that I need to submit Form 8833. Should I amend my tax return in this situation that nothing really changed?

Also, I made the same mistake for more than one year. If I need to amend the tax return. Do I need to do it separately?

Thank you.