Italian Researchers Filing US Taxes
This page is a memorandum for all those like me, who are working in the US
temporarily and need to make sure the US government knows we are exempt from
paying US taxes.
So, do researchers need to file tax forms to the IRS and to the state their
employer is based ? Yes.
For the federal taxes we need to file form 1040NR or form 1040NR/EZ (the
latter is a simplified version of the former, which can be used under
certain conditions).
For the state taxes we need to file a form whose name varies state by state.
For Massachusetts employees the form is 1-NR/PY.
To claim that one does not have to pay US taxes (i.e. that the gross income
received is tax exempt) one must cite the relative tax treaty and the article
under which one falls. In the case of research scholars, professors and
teachers, it is the "US-Italy tax treaty 1-86, article 20".
That claim should be done by attaching form 8833, which has some space where
one should state what exactly his or her position was during the last tax
year, the tax treaty article, the gross income which is exempt, etcetera.
This has to be attached both to the federal and state tax forms.
One should also document the gross income received by attaching form W4
or form 1042S, or whatever else one's employer has provided one with.
If filled coherently, both the federal and state forms should have zeroes
throughout, including the box where the total taxes are computed. In the
federal form there is a line which must be filled with the gross income
which is exempt. That line will not enter in any computations of taxes,
of course.
Be aware that you can claim the exemption only for two calendar years,
but if you did it last time more than six years ago you can start fresh
with two brand new years of exemption.
The following links send you to the web pages where you can
download the forms you need and get information:
The IRS web site
contains all possible forms, downloadable in pdf or ps formats, plus
a lot of publications and instruction booklets, also downloadable. Easy
to access and browse.
This page contains a lot of
good information for students and similar nonresident aliens who need to
file tax forms. Forms can be downloaded here, and there are useful links too.
The
Massachusetts DOR will be only useful if your employer is in Massachusetts.
Otherwise you need to go to the site relative to the state you have been
receiving money from...
Here
you can find my personal transcription of the US-Italy tax treaty. Warning, it's incomplete. But it may be just what you need...
In this web page you can find the text of the tax
treaty for US-Italy (again incomplete, though!), as well as those for all
other countries that have treaties with the US.
Tommaso_Dorigo
Last modified: Mon Aug 19 11:26:34 CDT 2002