Tax for two fulltime jobs in the US and Germany for a non-US non-European citizen

Question

I am a non-US + non-European citizen who is doing a postdoc in the US (under the J1 visa), in parallel, I have a full-time job (remote) in Germany. What will happen to my tax, shall I pay any extra taxes rather than what is being deducted from my payrolls?

Answer 1

In the US, while you may not have to pay any extra taxes, unfortunately you will have to file a tax return. It is not automatic.

Start with the assumption that you are filing as a US resident (typical for J1 status). Use tax software to work through the questions about foreign income. Even if you have to declare the German income in the US, you won't necessarily be double-taxed, because the US and Germany have a tax treaty.

Answer 2

You will have to pay taxes according to the rules of each country. Both USA and Germany want you to pay taxes for any money made while in their country. So Germany wants nothing, but in the USA you have to declare your income, including what you were paid in Germany, and pay taxes on all of it.

I hope your own home country (where you don’t live) doesn’t want a piece of the tax cake as well.

If your German employer takes money and sends it to the German tax office, that would be a mistake on their side, and you’d have to fill out a tax return in Germany to get your money back. So your tax return would be like: Taxes paid in Germany = €10,000, income in Germany = 0, tax owed in Germany = 0, refund = €10,000.