Hi,

I'm a British F1 student first year in the USA filing my taxes.

I study in NJ but I live in NY. I had Federal tax withheld at 14% from my stipend total of $7200 (ie. $1008 withheld) but have received no notification of anything to do with state tax from my university and they can't answer my questions. Having used the CINTAX software to fill out my federal return I understand I am due for a refund (perhaps because of expenditures on books, supplies and charitable donations since as far as I understand there is no tax treaty for F1 student with the UK).

Do I need to file either or both an NJ and NY form, and what do I fill in? Is there online software that can help me with this?

Please reply soon since this is urgent, as you can tell from the date of the message!

Thanks


Adam

Adam:

Offhand, if you have to pay federal income taxes on your stipend, then technically you will have to pay state income taxes.

However, on a practical matter, I know the NY state standard deduction is higher than your $7,100 stpend amount, so no NY taxes will be due and, more importnatly, there is no need to file a NY state tax return (unless you are eligible for some tax credit; I would have to research that). You might want to ask someone at the NY tax authority (go to the NY state government website to get a phone number for taxes) if you are eligible for some tax credit refund. For sure, though, you owe no NY state income taxes.

As for New Jersey, if your income from all sources is less than $10,000, you are exempt from filing state income taxes for NJ as well.

Thank you so much. That's wonderful to hear.

I will contact the NY state tax people and see what they say, but it sounds very promising.

Adam

What exactly is the NY state deduction figure? If the earnings were to rise to $8,700 would that still be below the NYS threshold?

Please let me know -- thanks.

For NY, the standard deduction for a single person is $7,500.

However, while there is a personal exemption, it applies only to dependents.

So, yes, if the income goes up to $8,700, there may be a tax consequence.