Jos Fosdyke

I'm a UK citizen, UK resident, never a US citizen or Permanent Resident, not resident or present in the US for any purpose. I'm about to claim my US Social Security retirement benefit which will be paid without withholding. Under the UK/US agreement this is not taxable in the US and is taxable in the UK. This will be my only US income.

Will the IRS expect me to file a US tax return each year? We won't owe one another anything, it's obviously not actually necessary, but common sense never seems to be relevant for these things.

Thanks for any advice or relevant experiences.

SanDiegogirl

Might be useful if you could explain what type of SS you are proposing to claim.
(As I understood it if you live outside of the US and are a non citizen then benefits cannot be paid after 6 months absence)

Jos Fosdyke

Thanks - retirement benefit as I mentioned. The UK/US agreements allow US SSA retirement benefits to be paid indefinitely to to UK citizens in the UK, many other nationalities have equivalent arrangements.

Pulaski

If you pay into US Social Security for at least 40 quarters you can claim a Social Security "pension" irrespective of citizenship, immigration/visa status, or location of residence at the time you claim and/ or receive payment. AFAIAA, the only restriction is that you have to have been legally in the US at the time you were working and paying Social Security contributions. ..... Very similar to the rules for receiving a UK state pension.

AmCit

True for aliens who had a SSN issued after Jan 1, 2004 (Social Security Protection Act of 2004). If a SSN was issued prior to that, all SS earnings count, regardless of immigration status. Receiving those benefits does require lawful presence in the US, however, under certain circumstances, aliens as well as their dependents and survivors may receive benefits while residing outside the United States (including benefits based on unauthorized work).

AmCit

From what I can gather, a person with your status (non-resident alien) would only need to file a US tax return (1040-NR) if tax was withheld from your SS payment and you want to claim it back. You might be able to avoid any withholding, thus avoid having to file a 1040NR initially, by filing IRS Form W-8-BEN (valid for 3 years at a time sans any status change) to claim treaty benefits with the SSA before you start receiving any SS benefits. HTH

Apparently I can’t post links presently, but if you copy this into your browser, it provides a relatively simple explanation:

taxesforexpats.com/articles/expat-tax-rules/non-us-citizen-receives-social-security-is-it-taxable-explained-in-plain-english.html

durham_lad

Good, clear article on what will happen and what to do.

here is the link again

https://www.taxesforexpats.com/artic...n-english.html

Jos Fosdyke

Thanks very much. I knew about avoiding withholding, the question was really about the IRS expecting to hear from me because I had US-sourced income (even though we wouldn't owe one another anything). The article doesn't seem to directly address filing a return when there is no withholding and no tax to pay or refund, though it does imply that you'd only bother filing if you were claiming a refund.

I expect I'm worrying about nothing, just don't want to do returns if it isn't necessary and equally don't want to annoy the IRS if it is. Thanks for the help.