Tax Residency

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
January 24, 2022
1 reply
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Hi,

I entered the US as a doctoral student on F1 visa in 2015 and have lived in Florida for 2.5 years. However, as a part of the doctoral program I was working outside the US for a period of 3 years (01/18-04/21). During this time, I was paid by the US institution and I have been filing taxes in the US. In May 2021, I moved back to the US for graduation. After graduating in August 2021, I have been working as a postdoctoral researcher at another US university (Minnesota). I had a few question about filing taxes this year:

1) Does the 5-year exemption still apply to me?

2) I tried using Turbo tax and Sprintax and both give the same tax refund amounts. The only difference is Turbotax offers an additional $1400 (third stimulus). Am I eligible to receive the bonus?

3) I haven't been in the state of MN for 183 days. So, do I still have to file the state taxes this year?

Thank you!

TurboTax Free Edition Online

ErnieS0

Your exempt status depends on what type of visa you currently hold. If you are on a J-1 visa, you would not be exempt because of the six-year lookback rule. Under that rule, you would have already used your two-years of exempt status.

If you are on an F-1 visa, you would be in your fourth exempt year: 2015, 2016 and 2017 (three years) plus 2021 (fourth year) so the five-year exemption would still apply.

See Example 3 in Alien - Exempt Individual Examples for J-1 explanation.

Nonresidents do not qualify for the third stimulus payment.

Minnesota

You do have to file a part-year Minnesota income tax return if you moved to MN and earned $12,525 during the year (both inside and outside of MN).

The 183-day rule does not apply if you moved to Minnesota and plan to stay for an indeterminate time period.

Minnesota says: “If you moved to Minnesota and planned to stay permanently, you’re a part-year resident regardless of how many days you spent in Minnesota.”

See: Part-Year Residents

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