Tax Returns: A Headache in Waiting

With me being both new to the country and also going away in April (to Canada), i decided this week that it would be a good time to start sorting out the business of Federal Tax Returns (that have to be completed by April 15th) and, my God, am i glad i thought to look at this early. I have to say that this is one time, i'm thankful for the British Government being the way it is - in that the Inland Revenue in the UK do this all for you. Anyway, the point of the tax return is for you to fill in how much you earned, how much federal tax (i.e. money for the US government) was taken off you and then calculate exactly how much should have been taken off you. If the balance is in your favour, you get money back off the government. If not, you pay them. Of course, this takes into account money that the State and local government took off you and also how much medicare went as well.

Of course, being a non-US national, this all becomes that BIT more complicated. First, you have to determine if you are classed as a resident alien or non-resident alien (whilst you could be resident in the eyes of the social security administration, for tax purposes you could be non-resident initially). To do this, you have to fulfil the following criteria: a) Have lived in the US for at least 31 days for the current year b) Have been present in the US for over 183 days in the past 3 years calculated as: All the days of the current year + 1/3 the days of the previous year + 20% of the days of the year before that. What makes it worse is that when you try to read the instruction booklet (online, i should add), it makes it even less clear. One has to wonder if it is purposefully this way, so the government can swindle you and you're none the wiser.