My situation for 2023 income tax year is-
1. I entered USA in January 2021.
2. I was on OPT from 2023-01-01 till 2023-09-31 (9 months) and was on H1B from October 2023 to December 2023(3 month) During that period of time, I had two W2-s, One 1099-MISC and one 1099-NEC. For both the 1099s - i submitted W8-BEN to the employers who gave me the 1099.
3. One of the W2 was from an employment which was entirely on OPT while the income from other W2 was partially on OPT and partially on H1b.
My question is-
1. For the tax year 2023, I would fail the substantial presence test for the year 2023 but will pass in 2024. Is that correct?
2. So, I believe I can opt for First Year Choice (page 11 in https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p519.pdf) and file 1040 for October to December and 1040-NR for January to September. Is that correct?
Why I am asking is - I want to split my W2 income into OPT and H1B since most of my income for 2023 was on OPT. In that way, I believe I can take the income during OPT into 1040-NR and make them fall into the appropriate Tax bracket. Also, I have tax treaty which I can use for the deduction in 1040-NR.
Can someone kindly provide me with some suggestions as to if the direction I am thinking of is correct/legal or not? It would be really helpful if anyone facing the similar scenario could help with the proper guidelines. That's the only route I could think of after some digging.
Thanks in advance.
