If by federal taxes you are referring to U.S. Social Security and Medicare taxes - then yes, a J-1 visa holder is exempted from the
requirement to pay Social Security and Medicare; you can
pursue obtaining a refund of improperly
withheld Social Security and Medicare taxes
via two routes:
- You can request that your employer refund the withheld
taxes to you.
- If the company will not refund the withheld taxes to
you, you can file a claim for refund with the Internal Revenue
Service on Form 843, Claim for Refund and Request for
Abatement.
For more information,
see the folllowing IRS guide on Social Security Tax / Medicare Tax and
Self-Employment:
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/social-security-tax-medicare-tax-and-self-em...
Please note that J-1
visa holders who substantially comply with the requirements of that visa, and
who do not exceed the duration of their specific Visitor Exchange
Program, are exempt from the Substantial Presence Test used to determine
eligibility for being a resident alien for U.S. income tax purposes: this means
that you are considered a nonresident alien.
As a nonresident alien
you will need to file a Form 1040NR to report any U.S.-source
income you have. TurboTax does not support Form
1040NR, so you will not be able to use TurboTax for your specific tax
situation.
You may want to check
out Sprintax,
who are specifically geared towards nonresident aliens
with 1040NR filing requirements.
For more information
please see IRS Publication 519, US Tax Guide for Aliens:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf
