Visa switch from J1 to F1. Undo claiming of tax treaty
Hi all,
I have recently switched from a J1 visa to a F1 visa. I would like to determine if and how I can claim a tax treaty. My case is the following:
I am a graduate student from germany. I entered grad school in NYC in January 2009 with a F1 visa. I had been to the US before as a research intern with two separate J1 visa between 2006 and 2008 (see below).
During my "J1-visits", I claimed the US-German tax treaty.
I was able to claim it for the calendar years 2006 and 2007. In 2008, I began paying taxes.
I was told by the University HR that I cannot claim the 5 year Tax treaty under my current F1 status if I already claimed a treaty under J1 status before. Apparently, a "back-to-back" rule applies here. I could not find any information about that.
I was told also, that the only way to get around this was to retract my claiming of the treaty for 2006/07 retroactively and pay taxes for those years.
This seems to be the way to go becaues I did not earn anything in 06 and for 07 my income was barely above personal exemption.
Does anyone have advice on this? How can I undo my claiming of the treaty?
Past and current stays in the US
June 2006-October 2006
visa: J1
Income: $0
- no taxes, but day-count for 2 year treaty already active
june 2007 - june 2008
visa: another J1
Income 2007: $4433 (compensation for researching)
Income 2008: $5572 (compensation for researching)
- Federal Tax: $465
- NY state Tax: $84
- City (NY): $66
- (treaty could only be claimed for 2 calendar years apparently)
January 2009-2013
visa: F1