There are four situations in which students studying in the United States apply for tax exemption.

April 15 every year is the tax payment date. For foreign students with F- 1 or OPT status, if they get scholarships or other taxable income, they need to submit tax forms to the IRS on or before April 15. If the income of international students is provided by their families or they receive tax-free scholarships, they do not need to submit tax bills to the IRS.

According to the information provided by Zhang Zherui Law Firm, according to the provisions of the Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA), American citizens and residents are required to pay social security tax and medical insurance tax. However, full-time or part-time students can ask for exemption from these two taxes as long as they focus on their studies and work part-time.

International students with F- 1 visas can also apply for exemption from the US social security tax and medical insurance tax, provided that:

1. They are employed by the service categories allowed by the Immigration Bureau, 2. They can correctly safeguard their legal status. 3. The services they are engaged in are within the scope of issuing corresponding visas.

Exemption conditions can only be exempted if certain conditions are met: 1. Students can work 20 hours a week at school. You can work full-time during the summer vacation, that is, 40 hours a week; 2. Students participate in off-campus internships (OPT, CPT or STEM OPT) approved by the Immigration Bureau. In the first year of study, F- 1 students are only allowed to work on campus. After a year's study, you can find an internship in one of the above three categories outside the school.

Generally speaking, international students who are not affiliated applicants of other American taxpayers can only apply for tax exemption once.

Tax exemption restriction

F- 1 Students who enter the United States must remain non-American residents if they want to be exempted from social security tax and medical insurance tax. Once a student becomes a resident, international students no longer enjoy immunity (770 1(b) provides some exceptions).

If students with F- 1 status change to other non-immigrant status (such as J- 1, M- 1, Q- 1, or Q-2), they will no longer enjoy immunity, generally starting from the day of identity transfer. For example, if a student of F- 1 changes to H- 1B status, he needs to pay social security tax and medical insurance tax.

F- 1 Students who have lived in the United States for more than five years are no longer entitled to visa exemption, because they are already considered as foreign residents in the United States (unless they can meet the conditions of visa exemption for students in FICA). F- 1 Students who have lived in the United States for less than five years are still regarded as non-residents and do not need to pay social security and medical insurance taxes.

For tax purposes, the year when foreigners enter the United States is used to determine the eligibility for tax exemption. For example, if a student with F- 1 enters the United States on June 5438+February 3, 2009, 2009 will be counted as the first year of his/her five-year exemption in the United States, even if it is only the last day of the whole year.

F- 1 F-2 spouses and children of visa holders need to pay social security and medical insurance taxes, because the purpose of their initial visit to the United States is not research, teaching or study. According to relevant laws, F-2 visa holders are not allowed to work in the United States. Once working, it violates the relevant regulations of the F-2 visa.

A qualified foreign student can also be exempted from paying social security and medical insurance taxes, even if he/she has become a foreign resident. The tax procedure of 2005~20 1 1 stipulated the conditions of tax exemption for students with employment relationship after April 2005 1.

There are four conditions for students to qualify for FICA exemption:

1. The employer must be a "research institution or higher education institution". This is limited to schools, colleges or universities (SCU). If an organization is regarded as a SCU, it is required that "its main function is to carry out educational activities", and that it has a normal teaching department and formal courses to recruit students and carry out formal teaching activities. This also excludes students who work in hospitals or museums, because there are only some educational responsibilities. The standards specified in this document do not apply to postdoctoral students, postdoctoral researchers, medical residents or interns, because their educational and professional responsibilities often overlap.

2. Student FICA tax exemption is not applicable to full-time employees. Full-time work is generally based on the actual operation of the specific occupation of the employer. But generally speaking, working hours of 40 hours or more are regarded as "full-time". Therefore, it is not eligible for exemption. Learning is more important than work. One way to determine a full-time job is to compare and evaluate the workload with SCU's full-time job. When evaluating full-time jobs, employees' work arrangements during school holidays are not considered.

3. "Professional employees" are also not suitable for students' FICA exemption. The identification of professional employees depends on whether employees need advanced knowledge in this field, whether they need to make decisions at all times in their work, and whether the nature of their work requires a certain level of intelligence and diversified management. Advanced knowledge in this field can only be acquired through long-term education and teaching process. This is different from regular job training (it can be mental or physical). Whether a position needs knowledge diversity can be judged by judging whether the results of the position are repetitive over a period of time.

4. Employees who receive certain benefits are not eligible for student FICA tax exemption. The so-called benefits include pension, tuition fee remission (exceptions), sick leave, paid vacation benefits, annual deferred benefits, distribution of employer contributions, or are classified as "professional employees". If SCU employers provide these benefits to employees and students, then students are no longer eligible for exemption.

Half-time undergraduate or graduate students are also eligible to apply for FICA tax exemption. According to the definition, "part-time" students refer to students who have completed the last semester or school season and obtained degrees, certificates or other educational certificates through a certain appropriate time. "Half-day" students can meet the exemption qualification of FICA if they work for less than one month during their study period.

However, FICA's exemption does not apply to students who work during school holidays and have not registered for classes for more than five weeks. If students have worked for five weeks or less, they can only meet the exemption requirements if they are still eligible to register for study after the holiday.

At the same time, the tax procedure of 2005~20 1 1 stipulates that the relationship between employees and research institutions/higher education institutions cannot be changed arbitrarily for tax avoidance.

The document lists two examples. In the first example, the FICA exemption does not apply to laboratory researchers who change from full-time employees to part-time employees and participate in the education program, which allows them to earn credits by working in the laboratory for 6 hours.

In the second case, if a non-student university employee has not been registered as a student for a long time, and later registered for six hours of course study and continued to work at the same time, then this person cannot meet the requirements of FICA tax exemption. (Excerpted from American Overseas Chinese News)