Hello,

I am an international student with a F1 visa and I have been in the US for less than 5 years and along with other criteria I qualify as a non-resident alien for tax purposes.

My friend put me in touch with an accountant you does taxes and he has been filing the 1040 form instead of 1040 NR for the past 2 years and I happily received around $3K in refunds whereas I should have received only around $500 - $750 because of this.

Now I know that I can rectify this situation (thanks to the many useful posts on this subject found in this forum) by filing a 1040X form. But I have 2 questions:

1. If I file the 1040X, will I have to repay the extra money I received in refunds due to the erraneous filing during the past 2 years? This is a critical issue for me because, I cannot simply payback this money immediately.

2. Since my accountant filed the taxes (he has put his name as the preparer in the tax form), does that provide me with some immunity from the IRS in case I am penalised for this error?

Thanks a lot.

C.

1. To amend your tax return, you must file Form 1040X with properly done nonresident tax return and Form 8843.
2. You must pay tax due with interest and penalty. You can request for the waiver of penalty.
3. No you do not get immunity except that you can request for waiver of penalty by explaining why this happened.
Your accountant should do your amended return free of cost but I doubt that he/she has ever done F1 visa holder tax return.