International students who were present in the United States during any part of 2018 must comply with Federal and State tax filing requirements. All F-1 and J-1 students who are categorized as Non-Resident Aliens for Tax Purposes must file a Federal Tax Statement (Form 8843), regardless of whether any income was earned. Additionally, any student who has earned income while in the United States during 2018 may also need to file income tax forms for Federal and State earnings. Over the next several weeks, you may receive important tax forms by mail from the University, off-campus US employers, banks, or other financial institutions. Do not discard these forms! You will need to use them when preparing to file your 2018 taxes.
To help in understanding your US tax obligations, several resources will again be available to UR international students. The GLACIER software system can help to determine your tax filing category and will allow access to its tax preparation program.
Please note: The current shutdown of several US Federal government agencies has included offices within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). As a result, there may be impact to tax filing document availability, deadlines, issuance of tax refunds, etc. Delays from IRS may also have ramifications for the release of the GLACIER Tax Prep software, which impacts the scheduling of GTP Assistant services as well. Please be sure to read future issues of ISO Student News to stay updated on how this government shutdown may affect you and to gather information regarding additional tax resources.