I am from India and I have been working for my employer in California(CA) salaried exempt fulltime on W2 since 2015 on H1B. I used to file 1040. Myself, wife(no income) and US born son(3yr old). We went to India Nov2021 on long vacation and also continue to work from remote arrangement.
It happened that I worked from remote for the entire 2022 and 2023 due to some USCIS delays. I came back to US->CA in 2024 and continued to work in person(3 days in office and 2 days from my apartment) with the same employer until this year. I also paid rent, EB, internet on my leased empty apartment for the time I was outside, as this long a delay was unexpected.
Even when I was outside, As expected my employer had contiued to withhold my federal and CA taxes as earlier.
Now I am back, I want to file all the returns for 2022 and 2023. I did not worry about filing the taxes earlier, I have been hoping only for tax-refund(and not further payment) based on my past history of 1040 filings.
I just realised I should not file 1040 but only 1040NR for 2022&2023 and 1040 for 2024(substantial precence test).
I am researching on the differnces between 1040 and 1040NR and I have the following questions:
I believe I can not claim my spouse or anybody as dependents in 1040NR.
1. can i claim my US born son as a dependent in 1040NR?
2. can I claim child tax credit for my US born son in 1040NR?
3. I believe I can not claim the standard deduction as it is 1040NR and also any itemized deductions given my out of US situation above. Or can I?
4. Some say that I need not pay any federal tax and CA tax as I was outside the country for all the days. Is that true?
CA tax queries:
5. Will I be able to claim all of my CA tax paid for refund? I was working as a full time employee on W2. My employer address on W2 is Texas but my worksite on visa is CA. My employer has offices in both TX and CA. I work at CA office location.
