Efiling Form 1040NR is a success story for the IRS! Since late February, 2017, filers around the world have been successfully efiling Form 1040NR. If you need to file this form and you are not living in the U.S., with efiling you will quickly know if the IRS has received and accepted your U.S. 1040NR tax return. No more waiting for mail delivery receipts, no more waiting to see if there is a reaction from the IRS!
Non-U.S. citizens and non-residents with U.S. source income, such as those who rent out U.S. real property, are happy to speed up their U.S, tax filing.
If successful efiling of Form 1040NR has not been your experience, then call on the technical support staff of the software developer.
Professional level tax software that is well-designed to address international tax provisions is successfully efiling a variety of situations that arise for Form 1040NR efilers.
But:
-Professional software that does not address some international tax areas may require the use of work-arounds to efile. Or maybe efiling is not possible and the 1040NR return still must be mailed to the IRS in Austin, TX, or Charlotte, SC.
-Tax software for home users may also have issues with trying to efile some Forms 1040NR.
-Some state tax systems may have difficulties with efiled state returns that are filed with efiled Form 1040NR tax returns.
IRS resources may help with some things your software developer left out:
Form 8843
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8843.pdf
Country Code list for MeF
Form 8843
This needs to be part of the Form 1040NR return if the filer is in the eXempt period when days actually spent in the U.S. do not count as days ‘present’ in the U.S. for meeting the Substantial Presence Test, (SPT). Applies to filers on F, J, M, and Q visas. Note: If the F, J, M, or Q filer is past the eXempt period and now counting days but left the U.S. before meeting the SPT, they will file on Form 1040NR but will not need to file Form 8843.
Form 8843 is also needed by those claiming a medical exception to counting days or a charity athletic event exception.
If your software does not include form 8843 or a worksheet for it, does your software allow you to attach the form as a pdf? If not, this 1040NR tax return must be mailed in with the Form 8843 attached.
Country Code list for MeF
Your software may require the two-letter country code for lines A and B on Schedule OI, but not help you find that list. The IRS has an article for that. See above.
State filing issues:
Do double check that any state return that accompanied an efiled Form 1040NR actually reached the state and was accepted. If this did not happen, again, call on the technical support staff of your software developer.