主要影響決定的是US-China treaty 文件, 不是報稅文件

這個問題在我們申請綠卡的時候也特別關注過, 敲下來僅供切磋:


假設沒有中美免稅協議, 那麽我們隻要在美國呆的時間足夠長, 滿足另外個substantial presence test, 那麽我們就應該按 residence 報.

現在有了中美免稅協議 (我假設大家都是按 article 19, teacher / professor / researcher 的那欄報頭三年的免稅), 所以才有按照免稅的要求, 照single, non-residence 的報法.

所以關鍵問題就在, 如果遞交了140, 還可不可以拿到免稅. 為此我特意到 H&R 問過, 得到的解釋是, 照 Article 19, 照抄如下:

An individual who is, or immediately before visiting a Contracting State was, a resident of the other Contracting
State and is temporarily present in the first-mentioned Contracting State for the primary purpose of teaching, giving
lectures or conducting research at a university, college, school or other accredited educational institution or scientific
research institution in the first mentioned Contracting State shall be exempt from tax in the first mentioned
Contracting State for a period not exceeding three years in the aggregate in respect of remuneration for such
teaching, lectures or research.

既然我們交了 140, 表示我們已經有意願放棄在中國的 residence 而拿到美國的permanent residence, 這樣我們就不算在美國"temporarily present"了, 所以就不能申請免稅, 也就必須按 resident 報了.

這裏的決定因素並不是美國政府是否批準了我們的permanent residence 的申請, 而是在於我們是否想在美國 temporarily present 還是 permanently reside.

-- 這是我從 H&R 得到的解釋, 當然不同人可能有不同解釋.

鏈接: The green card test and substantial presence test:
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=129390,00.html

US-China treaty:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/china.pdf

我記得IRS有哪個地方特意說明過如果填8833 申請免稅就必須照 single, non-resident 報稅的, 但我一下子找不到source了.

所有跟帖： 

• 多謝指教！但如果我繼續填1040NR—EZ，會有麻煩嗎！ -villa08- ♂ (104 bytes) () 03/12/2008 postreply 12:43:38

• 最好情況是全額拿到免稅, 最壞情況是被 audit, 多罰1000 塊 -frogdumb- ♀ (0 bytes) () 03/12/2008 postreply 13:03:08