Tax Treaties
(For Tax Year 2012)
How do you find out whether your country has a tax treaty with the U.S. that allows such a deduction and additional details regarding the deduction? Consult IRS Publication 901 (U.S. Tax Treaties) available in the office of International Student and Scholar Services. Be sure that you are referencing the correct section of the publication; tax treaty provisions for students begin on Page 18.
The section titled "Professors, Teachers, and Researchers" (which starts on Page 15) only applies to those individuals who entered the U.S. in non-student categories, such as a J-1 Visiting Professor or Research Scholar.
If you use GLACIER TAX PREP, it will inform you of any tax treaty for which you might be eligible, and put the information on the appropriate federal income tax form.
If you earned wages (as reported on form W-2) during 2012 and are a national of a country that has a tax treaty with the United States that includes a personal services provision for students, you may be able to deduct that tax treaty amount on your tax form.
The following countries permit their nationals who are students in the United States to protect a portion of their wages from income tax: Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, China, Commonwealth of Independent States*, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Spain, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, and Venezuela.(*This treaty is in effect for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). However, the rules vary by country.
An easy to read chart for tax treaties based on wages for students can also be found on the ISSS website at: http://www2.binghamton.edu/isss/taxes/saltable.html
If you have a qualifying scholarship or fellowship grant (not a teaching or research assistantship, and not a tuition scholarship) and are from one of the following countries, you may be able to protect all or part of your grant from tax: Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Commonwealth of Independent States*, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Indonesia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Ukraine and Venezuela. (*This treaty is in effect for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.)
An easy to read chart for tax treaties based on scholarships or fellowships for students can be found on the ISSS website at: http://www2.binghamton.edu/isss/taxes/schtable.html
If you are a student from India, stop by the ISSS for the handout which describes the India Tax Treaty or visit the ISSS website at http://www2.binghamton.edu/isss/taxes/usindia.html for specific information on the U.S. tax treaty with India.
An easy to read chart for tax treaties for J-1 scholars and faculty who earned salary and wages as reported on a W-2 can be found on the ISSS website at :
http://www2.binghamton.edu/isss/taxes/teachresea.html
Two other good sources of information on tax treaties are the special tax treaty page of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/international/article/0,,id=96739,00.html
And the website of Windstar Technologies, http://www.windstar.com/public/treaties.html
Both sites have posted the entire text of tax treaties for each country.
