F1 Student Alien Resident

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
February 18, 2020
6 replies
46 views

Hi,

I've been on an F1 visa since January 2014. Bachelor degree from January 2014 until December 2017. I then did an OPT from February 2018 until February 2019. In February of 2019 I was accepted in a Masters program which I'm going to be finished with in May of 2020.

I never made any income here as I was a student, even on OPT I was doing an internship that didn't pay, my parents were supporting me financially. I was about to take care of the tax return. I just discovered that apparently I'm now a Resident Alien for tax purposes... I read about the 8843 form, or 8840 form. I'm confused which next step(s) I need to take to make sure I do things correctly. Thank you so much for your help

Not A Product Question

pk_

Level 15

@Decla2020 , generally when you enter the country under F-1 student visa, you are exempt from having count days present in the USA for five calendar years starting with the year of entry. Since you do not count days, you remain as a Non-Resident Alien { during this period you report only US sourced income on form 1040-NR ). In your case your exempt period finished on 12/31/2018. So during 2019 Jan 1 on wards you count days present and thus mid year you pass the substantial presence test ( 183 present counting all the days in the current year, 1/3 of the days in the priors year and 1/6 days in the prior to prior year. ). Thus for the year 2019 you would need to file as a Resident Alien for tax purposes ( for the Immigration purposes you are still a Non-Immigrant Alien ) i.e. you are now taxed on your world income.

You can use TurboTax to complete the a 1040 return with no dificulty.

But since you had no income either from US sources or from foreign sources ( monies from your parents are not your income and cannot be taxed in the USA ), I do not understand why you want to file a return.

Which country are you from ( in case you need to assert treaty benefits )

Forms 8843 ( exempt individuals ) and form 8840 ( closer connection ) are both only required if you are a Non-Resident Alien reporting exempt status ( i.e. exempt from counting days present ) or a non-exempt person showing that his/her income must not be taxed because of closer connection to another country. Neither of these I think apply to you ( from what you have posted so far )

Does this answer your query ?