International Students in F1 Visa should file Taxes while in US. Even if you don;t make any money, you have to file Taxes. Understanding the tax rules will be difficult for a new student. During tax time, you will be confused to find out which IRS forms for F1 Visa students to file.
IRS Forms – F1 Visa
Following information applies only to International Students Taxes from India.
- Non-residents who earned wages that are less than the amount of one personal exemption ($3,650 for 2009) are no longer required to file a tax return but they must still file Form 8843 for themself and any spouse and/or dependents in F-2 or J-2 status
- you must file Form 1040NR-EZ or 1040NR in addition to Form 8843 if you had U.S. earned income in excess of $3,650, had wages or scholarship income exempt by treaty, had taxable scholarship income or are due a refund of taxes
- Non-residents filing form 1040NR EZ do not include U.S. bank or credit union interest as income. But nonresidents filing Form 1040NR would include this interest on Item L
You can always get help from your school tax attorney or CPA. Unlike India, you can learn the IRS tax rules and forms required for International Students to file taxes in 1 or 2 tax seasons. Some universities will offer free tax software to their students.
Note – Don’t spend money to file taxes when you can get help to file taxes from your university. If you just filing form 8843, 1040NSEZ or 1040NR, you should be able to get help from seniors, IRS website or from tax professionals in your university.
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The form to start with is called W-7. Its available on the following link:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw7.pdf
The benefit of filing this that international students can apply for credit card. The bank requires either social security number or Tax ID. So, this is a good step. You cannot get good post paid mobile phone deal if you don’t have any credit history and for credit you must have Tax ID or Social.