How should I handle dual-visa status for tax-return? In Oct. 2020, I transferred visa status from J1 to H1b.

[nightsky]

When holding J1, I did not pay FICA tax, and when started with H1b, I paid FICA tax.

[MaryK4]

You can be both a nonresident alien and a resident alien during the same tax year. This usually occurs in the year you arrive in, or depart from, the United States.  For the part of the year you are a resident alien, you are taxed on income from all sources. Income from sources outside the United States is taxable if you receive it while you are a resident alien. 

See Dual-Status Tax Year for complete details.

[nightsky]

@MaryK4 

Thanks for your quick response, let me be more clear. I used j1 visa as an intern working for a company from Oct. 2019 to Oct. 2020 without pay FICA tax, and in Oct. 2020, I transferred to a H1b visa at the same company and started to pay FICA tax till to the end of year. I stayed at US the whole time from Oct. 2019 to Dec. 2020. Below are the questions:

1) Should I file the tax-return 2020 as a NRA or RA?

2) I already bought turbotax software service, but it seems it can't figure out my situation after filling all the info, and it showed that I owed thousands dollar federal tax (I guess because the software can not understand that I don't need to pay FICA tax when using J1 visa),  can i still use Turbotax service? if not, can I refund?
3) What are your advices to my case?

Thank you very much.

[MaryK4]

You will want to see if you still have exemption under the J1 Visa (5 years on J1 visa) because then you are not liable for the FICA taxes.  You will use the dual status- you can prepare with TurboTax for the RA time, and you can use sprintax.com or other to prepare the 1040NR.  

For the RA 1040, you start with the date you switch to H1b (it will be a short year).  You MUST indicate you cannot use the standard deduction (one of the rules).

@nightsky