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Resources - Tax Information

Please refer to these Tax Information pages and the links below for general tax information. If you have a specific question, you will need to contact a qualified tax adviser or the Internal Revenue Service. The staff members of International Student Services are not qualified tax advisers.

Definitions:

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Oregon Department of Revenue (DOR): The IRS is the federal agency empowered to collect taxes in the United States. The ODR is the state authority.

Income: If you receive money or a scholarship while you are in the United States from a U.S. source, it is considered income. Typical sources of income are on or off campus employment, stipends, and scholarships awarded by the university or other organizations in the U.S. Income derived from non-U.S. sources (your home government or private, foreign sources) is not considered taxable income.

Taxes: If you have not received any form of income, it is not necessary for you to file a tax return, but you WILL have to file a form 8843. If you have received income, it may be taxable depending on U.S. tax treaties with your country and the source of the income. In most cases, your employer will have withheld tax monies for both the federal and state levels before paying you. These tax monies are sent to the federal and state governments. Because most F-1 and J-1 visa holders are not subject to taxation, you may recover this money by filing your return. Everyone in the United States, regardless of their immigration status, is responsible for submitting a complete an accurate income tax statement to the IRS, which is a branch of the U.S. Treasury Department. This process is called filing a tax return.

Forms: There are six forms with which you should be familiar. Three of them are forms which will be sent to you to assist your preparation of your tax return. The other three are forms which you will complete and submit to the federal and state governments.

• W-2 This form will be sent to you by your employer(s). It shows how much money your earned in each position you held during the tax year, how much tax money was withheld for the federal and state governments, and how much Social Security tax, if any, was withheld. Non-residents are not subject to Social Security withholding, so if money was withheld, you should talk to your employer about getting it back.
• 1099-INT This form will be sent to you by your bank. It shows the amount of interest income you earned last year. While U.S. residents are taxed for this income, non-residents are not subject to taxes on interest. However, you should have this form with you when you prepare your return as you may need to indicate that you received interest income.
  
• 1042-S This form will, in most cases, be sent to you by the organization that provides your scholarship. Not all scholarship income is taxable. If you receive money to cover tuition, fees and books, it is not taxable. If, however, your scholarship covers room and board, this portion of the scholarship is taxable and must be declared.
  
• 1040NR or 1040NR-EZ You will need one of these forms to file a federal tax return. The latter is a simplified version of the 1040NR and will be what most of you will use.
  
• OR-40N This is the form you will need to file a state tax return.
  
• 8843 This form ALL international students MUST file. It indicates to the federal government that you are a non-resident and that any income you may have had from abroad is not subject to taxation. If you do not file it, your off-shore income may become subject to taxation.
  

Links to other resources:

U.S. tax forms: Download forms from the Internal Revenue Service.

Oregon State tax forms: Download forms and other tax information from the Oregon Department of Revenue.

Taxweb.com: Offers links to Federal and State tax forms and additional tax information.

Windstar Technologies: Offers partial texts of tax treaties of benefit to international students and scholars.

TheTaxGuy.com: Offers information and for-fee tax return preparation for international students and scholars.

Please Note: this tax information is intended only for international students and scholars at Portland State University with income sources and levels typical of students and scholars at the University. If you have income from unusual sources, or higher than usual income, you should not rely on this tax information. You should instead seek professional tax advice from a qualified accountant or attorney.

The tax information on these pages is adapted from the University of Pennsylvania Office of International Programs website.

Tax Information Sessions for International Students & Scholars

Tax information workshops are generally held during March and April every year. Please check back during those times for more information.