Tax Information (Questions 1 - 3)
This information is provided by the Office of International Education for your convenience. We are not legal tax advisors. Please consult an income tax advisor or company for tax laws and tax liability not covered here.
Please note
Belmont business students offer assistance in filling out tax forms through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Please contact Brad Childs, 460-6485, childsb@mail.belmont.edu or Marilyn Young, 460-5551, youngm@mail.belmont.edu for more information.
Also note that the links to forms on this page require Adobe Acrobat Reader (available here).
As an international student in the United States you, like your American counterparts, must know and meet your obligations under applicable U.S., state, and local tax laws. If you do not, you could be subject to substantial monetary fines or even, in extreme cases involving fraud, loss of your immigration status in the United States. And equally important -- you need to know enough about U.S. tax laws to make sure that you do not pay more taxes than you should.
This information alerts you to the tax questions that you must answer in order to avoid both legal problems and overpayment of taxes. It is intended especially to help you prepare to file your annual U.S. (Federal) income tax returns. Please read through this information carefully and answer the questions asked. You will then be able to select the official tax publications and forms -- and the additional tax information sheets -- appropriate to your situation.
US Income Tax
U.S. income tax is collected by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). IRS has a special set of rules (and special tax forms and publications) for most international students in the U.S. IRS rules are very complex, but fortunately there are only six basic questions that you must answer in order to be able to meet -- and not exceed -- your U.S. income tax obligations. The six questions follow. Read through them and note your answers. When you have done so, you will be well on your way to meeting your 2008 U.S. income tax obligations.
1) Am I a resident or nonresident for U.S. income tax purposes?
Your answer to this question determines your basic obligations under U.S. (also called 'federal') tax law.
If you are a resident taxpayer (which you can be, even if you are not a 'permanent resident' or immigrant to the U.S.) you must pay federal income tax on your worldwide income. You do not, however, have to file an annual income tax statement, or 'tax return,' unless your income exceeds a certain amount.
If you are a nonresident taxpayer you pay federal income tax only on the income you receive from U.S. sources, but you must file an annual income tax return, even if you had no income at all from U.S. sources during the year.
Most F-1 and J-1 students at Belmont University are nonresident taxpayers for federal income tax purposes. In general, you were a nonresident in 2008 if you entered the U.S. anytime after December 31, 2002 and have been present since then only on an F or J visa.
If this is the case for you, note below that you are a nonresident for federal income tax purposes for 2008. If you entered the U.S. before January 1, 2003 and have been present since then on an F or J visa you were a resident for federal income tax purposes in 2008. If you have had another visa type besides an F or J, please see the discussion of tax residency and nonresidency in IRS Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens.
2) Do I have to file a federal income tax return?
If you were a student and a nonresident for federal income tax purposes in 2008, you must file a 2008 tax return. If you were a nonresident who had any U.S. source income in 2008, you must file your tax return on IRS Form 1040NR ( 1040NR Instructions ) or IRS Form 1040NR-EZ ( 1040NR-EZ Instructions ). You must also attach a special supplemental statement, IRS Form 8843, to your Form 1040NR or Form 1040NR-EZ. If you were a nonresident who had no U.S. source income in 2008, you still must file, but you only have to file Form 8843; you do not need to file Form 1040NR or NR-EZ if you had no U.S. source income (you also file only Form 8843 if your only U.S. income was interest earned by your U.S. bank account; this is not considered U.S. source income for nonresidents; see question 3, below).
If you were a student, but were a resident for federal income tax purposes in 2008, you must file a tax return on Form 1040EZ ( 1040EZ Instructions ), Form 1040A ( 1040A Instructions ) or Form 1040 ( 1040 Instructions ) only if:
- you were single and your worldwide income exceeded $8,950 in 2008, or
- you were married, file a joint return with your spouse, and your worldwide income exceeded $17,900 in 2008
If you were a tax resident and do not have to file a 2008 federal tax return to comply with the law or to obtain a refund or credit, congratulations, you're done. STOP HERE. If you do have to file a 2008 federal income tax return, please go on to question 3.
3) Did I have taxable income in 2008?
If you were a federal tax nonresident in 2008, remember that you pay U.S. income tax only on your U.S. source income. As a nonresident you had taxable income in 2008 if you had any of the following:
- a non-service scholarship or a fellowship grant from a U.S. source that exceeded the amount of your tuition and mandatory fees at the University (that is, a grant that covered room or board in addition to tuition and fees, or paid you a monthly stipend to help you meet your living expenses; scholarship amounts granted to cover tuition and fees are not taxable; these amounts are not reported on Form 1042-S and do not have to be reported on your tax return.) The University or other granting institution should report this taxable income to you on IRS Form 1042-S, although you may not have yet received your Form 1042-S, since tax law does not require grantors to issue Form 1042-S before March 15, 2009.
- wages from any U.S. job, on-campus or off-campus, including a teaching assistantship or a research assistantship, that you had in 2008. (Included in this category is all income that your employer(s) reported to you on Form W-2. You should have received a Form W-2 from your 2008 employer(s) by January 31, 2009. Please note that any amount reported on Form W-2 cannot be considered non-service scholarship or fellowship income. If you believe that income reported on Form W-2 was non-service scholarship income you should raise the matter with your department and request a corrected Form W-2 and Form 1042-S.)
- consulting fees from work done in the U.S.
- dividends or capital gains from ownership of U.S. mutual funds or individual stocks or bonds
- any other income (such as rent, royalties, copyright earnings) from U.S. sources EXCEPT interest that you earned on a savings account or certificate of deposit in a U.S. bank. (Strangely enough, federal tax law considers bank interest earned by nonresidents to be foreign source, not U.S. source, income and therefore non-taxable.) If you had income from dividends, capital gains, rent, royalties, or other such U.S. sources you should seek professional advice about your federal income taxes.
If you were a federal tax nonresident and had no taxable income in 2008, STOP HERE and follow this link to NR-No Income: Federal Income Tax Filing Information for F-1 and J-1 Students and Scholars Who Had No U.S. Source Income in 2007. (If you were a federal tax nonresident who had U.S. source income in 2008, including non-taxable scholarship income, please go on to question 4 on the next page.)
If you were a federal tax resident for 2008, in general all of your worldwide income, including your income from bank interest in the U.S., was taxable income for U.S. purposes. (There are a few exceptions, such as income from tax-exempt municipal bonds, but these are rare among university students.) If you were a federal tax resident, review the income categories above, but read 'worldwide' where references to 'U.S.' appear and include bank interest as part of your income.
