Thank you so much for your response! And I have an additional question. Actually, I have already filed 2023 tax return as a resident alien last week. After that, to double-check my tax status, I emailed my school's payroll services and I received feedback from a non-resident alien specialist replied as follows:
According to our legal tax guidance, a J1 Scholar is not a student visa and is treated as a nonstudent visa. So for those reasons, it is not factored into a student visa SPT calculations. Nonstudent visa holders are exempt for 2 years, while student visa holders are exempt for 5 years. Per our legal tax guidance, we should not use exempt days when calculating SPT on a different visa type, thus we would not use the days of presence in the US under a nonstudent visa when calculating the days of presence under a student visa.
Should you choose to file as a resident alien or nonresident alien is ultimately your choice. Our Payroll Services makes SPT calculations based on our legal tax guidance and the information provided by the employee at time of hire and withholds taxes accordingly. If your taxes were withheld at the nonresident alien tax rate and you filed your taxes as a resident alien, you will receive any excess taxes paid back via a US tax refund.
In sum, according to my school's payroll services, they make SPT calculations based on their legal tax guidance and thereby I was classified as a non-resident alien for 2023 tax year. However, I have reservations about their calculations and believe that I should be classified as a resident alien for 2023 tax year.
However, I am concerned that my taxes for the 2023 year were withheld at the non-resident alien tax rate, and my W-2 form reflects this. Given these circumstances, I am wondering whether I should request a revision of my W-2 form to reflect the resident alien tax rate in order to amend my 2023 tax return. As I mentioned, I have already filed 2023 tax return. I look forward to your response. Thank you for your time!
