Hi everyone, I’m an international student, and I’ll be attending a private liberal arts college in the US this year. I got accepted ED, and I received a generous FA package that covers full tuition, room, and board. I’ve been trying to find some information about taxes, and as far as I understand, I only have to pay taxes on the grant money I’ll be using to pay for my room, board, transportation, and personal expenses. So, if I’m receiving 50k, and then I use 40k to pay my tuition and fees, then I’ll only have 10k worth of taxable scholarship money. Is that correct?
Also, what about all the paperwork? Will college assist me with my tax forms, etc, or do I have to obtain all the forms on my own and then fill them and file them? How does it work?
Someone?
I think you aren’t getting replies because no one knows about internationals filing US taxes. You’d be right if you were an American filing. You’d also get a $6300 personal exemption, so in your example you’d only be taxed on $$3700. I don’t know how you file as you’re not a citizen and you don’t have a SSN.
Will the school help you? No. There are sometimes some volunteer groups that help students, and there is some help from the IRS, but non-citizens are different forms. You can certainly look at the tax software like Turbo Tax or read IRS forms.
@twoinanddone All international students on f1 student visa apply for ssn once they arrive, so I guess it can’t be that different for us foreigners? Anyway, thanks for the information. I will look at the tax software you’ve mentioned
I don’t think we’ve had threads about this question. If int’ls pay taxes on this (and likely they do), then wouldn’t they use a tax filing number (ITIN) that other non-domestics use?
See http://wings.buffalo.edu/intlservices/tax.html
Most school will have webpages like that.
International students file 1040NR / 1040NR-EZ.
Students from many countries can claim only 1 exemption and only itemized deduction (no standard deduction).
Taxable scholarships are scholarships - tuition and fees. However, if OP comes from a country that has tax treaty with US, and this tax treaty exempts certain amount of scholarships; OP would have very low taxable income: taxable scholarships - tax treaty - personal exemption.
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However, if OP comes from a country that has tax treaty with US,
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Great. Can our own domestic students get a “treaty” from the US? …guess not… Hmmmmmmmmm…
@4kidsdad thank you, you’ve been most helpful!
How does that work when the parents are foreigners and living not in US?
American students report the taxable part of scholarships on form 1040, if they are dependent on parents for tax purposes they get a standard deduction (no personal exemption) and are taxed at their parent rate.
Kudos to you, you are the first international student I’ve seen who is asking about this.