Tell me more ×
Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who want to be financially literate. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

So far, all of the online filing companies I looked at either explicitly or implicitly don't accept filings from non-residents (for example, they might require payment for their services from a US based credit-card or bank account, or may require a US based mailing address for registration, etc...)

Are there any online filing companies which allow for internationals to file US taxes (ie, including foreign mailing address, and foreign payment methods/foreign credit cards)?

share|improve this question

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote accepted

It's not just the US based mailing address for registration or US based credit-card or bank account: even if you had all these, like I do, you will find that these online filing companies do not have the infrastructure to handle non-resident taxes.

The reason why the popular online filing companies do not handle non-resident taxes is because:

  1. Non-residents require a different set of forms to fill out - usually postfixed NR - like the 1040-NR.

    These forms have different rules and templates that do not follow the usual resident forms. This would require non-trivial programming done by these vendors

  2. All the NR forms have detailed instructions and separate set of non-resident guides that has enough information for a smart person to figure out what needs to be done. For example, check out Publication 519 (2011), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens.

    As a result, by reading these most non-residents (or their accountants) seem to figure out how the taxes need to be filed.

For the remaining others, the numbers perhaps are not significant enough to justify the non-trivial programming that need to be done by these vendors to incorporate the non-resident forms.

This was my understanding when I did research into tax filing software.

However, if you or anyone else do end up finding tax filing software that does allow non-resident forms, I wil be extremely happy to learn about them.

To answer your question: you need to do it yourself or get it done by someone who knows non-resident taxes.

Some people on this forum, including me for gratis, would be glad to check your work once you are done with it as long as you relieve us of any liability.

share|improve this answer
1  
I think the main reason is the numbers perhaps are not significant enough to justify the non-trivial programming. Its very complex, and there are different treaties for different countries, and its a huge effort to support very limited number of clients. I intend to get a tax preparer license from CTEC just so that I could help my numerous friends filling these forms "officially". – littleadv Apr 9 '12 at 0:40
2  
@blueberryfields I don't know if anyone has told you that before, but the IRS offers these forms for free. Besides, just checked all the TurboTax products - none of them includes the NR forms. – littleadv Apr 9 '12 at 2:55
1  
@blueberryfields Just tried that. No, you're wrong. It doesn't fill NR form for you. When I clicked "preview my form" it showed me the plain old 1040. – littleadv Apr 9 '12 at 3:28
1  
@littleadv I just went through it again - you're right, it went to the 1040EZ, not NR. It did do the NR version of the forms for state taxes, though. – blueberryfields Apr 9 '12 at 3:59
1  
@blueberryfields NR forms for states are much simpler, because there are no different rules for different people in different countries, and many Americans file NR forms in various states for various reasons (I file NR in AZ, for example, because I have rental property there). – littleadv Apr 9 '12 at 4:25
show 3 more comments

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.