Am I a part-year resident or non-resident of the state of Illinois for tax purposes?

Question

I am having some trouble determining my tax status for the state of Illinois. I was a J1 (short term scholar) in the state of Illinois for 3 months. From reading this piece of information for first time filers; I know that I am definitely not a resident. But I am not certain whether this means I am a part-year resident or resident. My stay in Illinois was of a temporary nature, i.e. it was never my intention to establish a permanent residence there; so assuming being domiciled means establishing a permanent residence and is the definition used by the state of Illinois as "resident"(see here) I would take that to mean that I'm a nonresident. Is this interpretation correct?

I'm sorry if this question seems trivial, english is my second language, so this definition chasing is a really hard activity for me.

Answer 1

Update: I did call Illinois Department of Revenue. I was informed that because I'm a full time resident of another country, and did not intend to make Illinois a permanent home, I should pick non-resident as my tax status. The person whom I talked to mentioned that I should preferably also add a small letter of explanation as to why I'm picking non-resident.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

You are considered to be a part-time resident of Illinois. If you were paid wages during your stay in Illinois, these would be reported to you (and the Internal Revenue Service) on a Form W-2 of which Copy A is sent to the IRS, Copy B is to be filed with your Federal income tax return and Copy 1 with your Stale of Illinois income tax return. Any income taxes withheld will be reported on the W-2; as a J1 visa holder, you should not have had Social Security or Medicare tax withheld. Most likely, you will get most of the tax withheld refunded to you. Alternatively, you might have been paid a fellowship stipend or as a consultant which would be reported to you (and the IRS) on a Form 1099-MISC with (typically) no tax withheld or maybe a flat 30% withholding if you had supplied a foreign address to your employer/J1 visa sponsor.