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I'm trying to figure out the simplest way to file my last dual status US income tax return. I'm a Finnish citizen and my US status was as follows:

  1. H-1B: October 2015 - May 2017
  2. LPR: May 2017 - May 2018

I moved to Finland in August 2017, but it wasn't until the spring that I decided that I won't be going back, so I filed an I-407 with DHS in May 2018 to abandon my LPR status. I'm therefore considered an LPR, i.e. a tax resident, for Jan-May 2018, but I was working for a Finnish employer and living in Finland for all of 2018.

My confusion is the following:

  1. My understanding is that my foreign income from Finland from Jan-May 2018 is eligible for the foreign earned income exclusion, so I could file form 2555-EZ.

  2. The US Tax Guide for Aliens says that I need to file form 1040NR, since I was a nonresident on the last day of the tax year.

My understanding is that form 2555-EZ can only be filed together with form 1040 and not form 1040NR. On the other hand, I can use form 1040 as a statement for the income I've earned during Jan-May. Is this statement where I should apply the 2555-EZ?

The other question that I have is that since I'm not living in the US anymore, I normally would not need to even declare to the IRS any of my foreign income. Do I still need to report my Finnish income to the IRS after the date I abandoned my LPR status? My understanding is that this income is fully exempt from US taxation.

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  • You are claiming that you are dual-status, i.e. resident only from Jan-May 2018, and nonresident after. But the Publication 519 section on the Green Card Test says if you are a permanent resident in any part of the year, you pass the Green Card Test and you are a resident alien for the whole year.
    – user102008
    Apr 7, 2019 at 21:52
  • Since this is the last year you're a resident alien, see also the "Last Year of Residency" section. By default, your residency termination date is December 31, although you can choose to have your residency terminate when you left the US (and thus be dual-status for the year -- nonresident for the part after you left), but only if for the remainder of the year your tax home was in a foreign country and you had a closer connection to that country, and you have to explicitly file a statement with the IRS to choose this.
    – user102008
    Apr 7, 2019 at 21:53

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