Dear Tax experts,
My wife just started her post-doc job as J-1 research scholar, her visa has been issued for 5 years MAR-2012 / MAR-2015.
At the payroll office the officer said that because she is staying in the USA for more than 2 years she cannot apply for the tax treaty.
I tried to test this condition on glacier website (using my credential) and in any case she can claim for tax treaty benefits for the first two years and after she will become a resident.
The date on the J-1 doesn't matter as what matter is your WILLING or not to stay in the country independently from the authorization (in fact in the glacier website you must indicate both the expiration of the visa and your tentative date of departure that could be earlier).
In our case we don't know if we are going to stay or not as my visa expires on september/12 and our permanence will depend if my visa will be renovated or not.
Thanks for any feedback,

Davide

I just found this document on the glacier website with the technical explanation of this case:
"It is possible that an individual who meets the qualifications of this article, including the requirement that the visit be “temporary”, may remain in the other State {the U.S.} longer than two years, in which case the exemption applies for the first two years of the visit."
You can also see in the attached document...

What do you think guys?

Do you mean *2010* to 2015? (2012 to 2015 is not 5 years) What's in your tax treaty depends on your country. What country's tax treaty are you talking about?

Sorry it is 2012-2017. I'm talking about the ITALY-USA tax treaty attached in the previous reply,
Thanks

Check the U.S.-Italy tax treaty to be sure, but there is no retroactive tax provision the treaty, unlike the Indian treaty, so you do get 24 consecutive months of tax exemptn

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Originally Posted by AtlantaTaxExpert

Check the U.S.-Italy tax treaty to be sure, but there is no retroactive tax provision the treaty, unlike the Indian treaty, so you do get 24 consecutive months of tax exemptn

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Yes, my major problem is that the tax officer in my wife workplace said that because the J-1 length exceeds 2 years, than it is supposed that the permanence is not temporary and the treaty doesn't apply...
Do you know a technical IRS document or reference that explain specifically this situation that I can forward to that idiots?
The technical explanation helps but I would like to find something where it is specifically stated that with a visa exceeding 2 years it is still possible to claim the exemption!
Thanks ;)

You may not be able to get that, which means she will have to claim the exemption when she files her tax return.