Hai,

I'm a postdoctoral fellow on J1 visa. I came to USA on 08/27/2004.
I was employed by university of Houston all these days. I have received a fellowship grant for one year from NIH (national Institute of Health with start date Nov'06-oct'07). Soon after I received it I was taken out of the payrol system by the university system and I started receiving my monthly income in the form of stipends. For the year 2006 I received two months stipends.

While filing my taxes (1040NR, my wife and my daughter 1 year old stays with us) I noticed that I need to mention about my stipends as my source of income as well, right! But so far I only received W2-form which states my wages and salries for 10 months period. My stipends are not included in it. So while reading the booklet I noticed I should receive a 1040-S form regarding my stipend (which I never received). When I asked the tax volunteers about this (due to shortage of staff on a rainy day, they were in a kind of rush) on 03/31/07 they said they can only help me if I have documents like W2 and 1040-S. So do I need to mention about the stipends, for which I donot have any documents? Please help me..

Thanks in advance
-Ravi

Ravi:

The reason you did not receive a Form 1042-S is because it is very likely that the stipends themselves are exempt from taxation.

Contact the NIH to be sure, but the lack of the Form 1042-S makes me confident that you need pay NO taxes on this stipend.