AdobePinon

There's the substantial presence test and the green card test. Get yourself publication 519 from www.irs.gov. Enter with a clear mind, because it reads something like 183 days counting only sundown on Saturday through sunup on Friday, excluding federal holidays that begin with the letter "P", counting Mondays, Wednesdays, and Sundays twice if they immediately follow a new moon divisible by 6.5, dividing the total by the year your state entered the union and multiplying by 1/1000th of the ISBN number of the last book you read that was not fiction unless it was written by an author who's name could be either a verb or a noun,

BigDavyG

OK - discount the rest of this thread.
I have no doubt that DBJ knows his stuff but it appears that as a resident alien that you should be taxed as a US citizen, substantitve presence test or not.
I'm still searching to find out wtf the SPT actually applies to, as right now I can't find any examples, but I'll post back when I do.

AdobePinon

From 519: "You are a resident for tax purposes if you are a lawful permanent resident of the United States at any time during the calendar year. (However, see Dual-Status Aliens, later.) This is known as the “green card” test. "

BigDavyG

Indeedy - that's how the article I was looking at seemed to read to me, though it didn't say that explicitly.
So what about the substantial presence test - presumably that's for H-visa holders, etc who are not permanent residents.

By the way, despite possibly sounding clueless above I sat and passed the Association of taxation Technicians exams back home a few years ago when I was bored for a few months
Maybe I was being lazy asking the questions on here but the link to the IRS site has prompted me to get of my arse, so thanks

Jaxbar

I promise i am not lazy just totally overwhelmed, I am still busy dealing with immigration cock ups and can hardly bear to think about this as well, I paid a bloody fortune before I left UK to sort tax as I had some self employed earnings, its really frustrating to have to file it again. So please if you find anything out post it back

BigDavyG

Any other helpful hints, like deductions I could claim that aren't immediately obvious.
I need to check up on my relocation expenses as I did not relocate with a job already secured, so I'm not sure if they can be claimed back as job-related expenditure.

Oh, one last thing - I didn't keep receipts for a lot of stuff when I first got here (airfares over here, a few hundred bucks lost at the racetrack whilst I was waiting to start my job, etc) - what's the procedure for claiming when you have no receipts so essentially no proof on incurring the expense ??? Is there even a bit of leeway they will give you ??

AdobePinon

Don't really know about most of that. Relocation though - probably not entitled. Even if you HAVE to relocate for your job, there are a lot of exceptions to what you can claim. I've never pulled it off yet.

dbj1000

Well I guess I forgot to ask if you had a Green Card! You're right, the substantial presence test is for non-immigrant visa holders (H, L etc.)

I'll have a think about what other non-obvious exclusions you may want to claim, but I can't think of any for now.

I'm not sure about the receipts question, so that's one for the H&R Block robot. He/she should at least know the answer to an easy one like that

Patrick Hasler

You should have moved in June instead of July, that extra month changes alot with your taxes. If you moved after 6 months into the year I think you do have to claim all your UK income, but the tax year in the UK is considered as well... or at least it used to be, and any taxes taken in the UK are either deductible or prorated unless you're claiming a return there... most people don't realize they can get all their UK taxes back if they move here,... but you can. Might be worth looking into. I know more about this shit than I ever wanted to.... causes alot of headaches the first year.

Kate

dbj1000

Kate, I'm afraid that's pretty much all wrong. Not surprising you had trouble in the first year!

cbone

I used Global Tax network for the first 2 years, they were excellent and very knowledgable on international tax legislation.
This year I done my own as it was straight forward.

BigDavyG

Did you pick up any sneaky little deductions ??

Big D

Get all your UK taxes back? I think not! You can get a refund if you have overpaid - which you usually will because of the distribution of your personal allowance - but if you earned it in the UK - you are gonna pay for it in the UK......

Bob

It's $80K.

It gets tricky if you claimed your UK tax back for not being a resident...

Bob

You can actually, if you ain't been a resident for a whole tax year you can claim it back, I did before I left....does make it interesting for US taxes though because then you have to claim it over here...but I didn't make the threshold so it didn't matter