Do the 5 years of student benefits under US-France tax treaty have to be consecutive?

[cf856]

A French student covered by article 21 of the US-France tax treaty can claim treaty benefits for "a total of 5 taxable periods". Do those five years have to be consecutive, or if the studies last longer can the student skip a year, for example skip 2023 and claim benefits for 2019, ’20, ’21, ’22, and 2024? The treaty does not specify this and IRS Publication 901 under Students and Apprentices also just says "for a maximum of 5 tax years".

Note that, although the student becomes a resident alien after five years, they are still covered by the treaty given the exceptions to the Saving Clause for students.

[RobertB4444 · Accepted solution]

The five tax periods do not have to be consecutive, just that you are only allowed to do it for five years.  Some students return home for a year or two before coming back to continue their studies and this takes that into account.

@cf856 

[cf856]

Thank you! And can those five years be spread across more than five tax periods? For example if the treaty covered 9 months of employment during the 2022 tax period and 3 months of employment during the 2023 tax period, together can those 12 months count towards only one year of the five-year limit, or would they count as two years total because they were from two separate tax periods?

[Vanessa A]

No.  A tax period is a calendar year. So, the 9 months in 2022 count as one tax period and the 3 months in 2023 count as a separate tax period.  

[cf856]

Thank you very much!