How to claim a tax treaty with Turbotax ?

[soniaglg1995]

I am in the US since May 29th, 2018 under a J1 trainee visa, meaning I should be tax exempt by a treaty France-USA. I started filing my taxes with Sprintax but after filling the forms with my information, Sprintax told me I was considered a resident for tax purposes (I have been in the US 4 months in 2015 with a J1 visa , 5 months in 2016 with a J1 visa + a week vacation in 2017). So Sprintax told me to use Turbotax instead but when I try to claim my tax return, there is no mention of the tax treaty and it looks like I am not getting the refund I should.

I have got my W2 from my employer, the Federal taxes box is blank. But some taxes were still taken from my paycheck for an amount of $250 per month.

[Leonard · Accepted solution]

To claim your tax treaty in Turbotax follow these steps

You will report your income as usual then you will enter the treaty-exempt amount as negative income under "Less common income". 

You will have to file a Form 8833 to claim the exception however TurboTax does not support Form 8833, so you cannot e-file.  You may use the program to prepare your return, but you will need to print out your tax forms and mail the returns along with the form 8833 and a copy of your tax documents ( for example, W-2 /Form 1099s).

• With TurboTax open select  Wages & Income.
• Scroll down to Less Common Income and select Miscellaneous Income, 1099-A, 1099-C.
• On the next page select Other reportable income.
• On the page Other Taxable Income enter Tax Treaty Exclusion in the description and enter  your exclusion as a negative amount
•  This will put your Tax Treaty Exclusion on Schedule 1 Line 21 of your 1040.

This link Treaty-Based Return Position Disclosure Under Section 6114 or 7701(b)  is to Form 8833.

[Edited 03/10/2020 | 12:53 pm PDT]

[soniaglg1995]

Thank you for the details. Although, what do you mean by entering my "exclusion as a negative amount" ? Is there a specific amount I have to enter ? And where do I find it ?

[spike Spiegel]

Thanks, Leonard. Super useful info. It seems I can only download the pdfs after I pay the turbo tax fees (even I do not e-file). Am I correct? 

[Gottadothetax]

Hi, great answer, but I'm having a hard time...

I need to exclude all the social security income, since I'm doing the taxes for someone who lives overseas in one of the 8 countries where the US social security is not taxed due to treaty.

When I enter the full social security income in line 6a, around $20K, then 6b has about $3K, the amount that is taxable.  If I exclude the full social security income by entering the negative under other income, then I get negative AGI which is not correct, since in line 6b, only has the taxable amount and not the full social security income.

If I enter in Other Income the the negative of the taxable social security, the 6b the taxable amount changes, since the social security taxable, takes into account the other income.

What I would want to do is just enter 0 in 6b and write "non taxable due to treaty", but I don't see how I can write on the dotted line in Turbo Tax?  I really want to file online rather than printing and mailing.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

[lb93]

How many years are we going to have to wait for TurboTax Premium to support the 8833. For one lousy piece of paper I have to file by mail and wait 8 months for my refund.  

[Anonymous]

TurboTax is not likely to ever support this form, it is probably not even under consideration.  It is too complex for the average DIY taxpayer, most of the time, and the form itself has way too many potential variations and whatnot to program easily.  They're not going to spend a lot of time on a form that is not used by many taxpayers.  Most folks using the form really do need professional assistance - and even then, many professional preparers cannot handle that form, either.