Substantial Presence Test

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If you are not a U.S. person, you will be considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes if you meet the substantial presence test for the calendar year 2009. In this test you can not include the days that are "Exempt" from residency, the days in transit or the days of stay in the U.S. because of medical condition. To meet this test, you must be physically present in the United States on at least:
1. 31 days during 2009, and
2. 183 days during the 3-year period that includes 2009, 2008, and 2007, counting:
(a) All the days you were present in 2009, and
(b) 1/3 of the days you were present in 2008, and
(c) 1/6 of the days you were present in 2007.

First Year of Residency
If you are a U.S. resident for the calendar year, but you were not a U.S. resident at any time during the preceding calendar year, you are a U.S. resident only for the part of the calendar year that begins on the residency starting date. You are a nonresident alien for the part of the year before that date.

Residency starting date under substantial presence test. If you meet the substantial presence test for a calendar year, your residency starting date is generally the first day you are present in the United States during that calendar year. However, you do not have to count up to 10 days of actual presence in the United States if on those days you establish that:
*You had a closer connection to a foreign country than to the United States, and
*Your tax home was in that foreign country.

In determining whether you can exclude up to 10 days, the following rules apply.
*You can exclude days from more than one period of presence as long as the total days in all periods are not more than 10.
*You cannot exclude any days in a period of consecutive days of presence if all the days in that period cannot be excluded.
*Although you can exclude up to 10 days of presence in determining your residency starting date, you must include those days when determining whether you meet the substantial presence test.

First-Year Choice
If you do not meet either the green card test or the substantial presence test for 2008 or 2009 and you did not choose to be treated as a resident for part of 2008, but you meet the substantial presence test for 2010, you can choose to be treated as a U.S. resident for part of 2009. To make this choice, you must:
*Be present in the United States for at least 31 days in a row in 2009, and
*Be present in the United States for at least 75% of the number of days beginning with the first day of the 31-day period and ending with the last day of 2009. For purposes of this 75% requirement, you can treat up to 5 days of absence from the United States as days of presence in the United States.

Exempt Individual
The term “exempt individual” does not refer to someone exempt from U.S. tax, but to anyone in the following categories.
(a) An individual temporarily present in the United States as a foreign government-related individual.
(b) A teacher or trainee temporarily present in the United States under a “J” or “Q” visa, who substantially complies with the requirements of the visa.
(c) A student temporarily present in the United States under an “F,” “J,” “M,” or “Q” visa, who substantially complies with the requirements of the visa.
(d) A professional athlete temporarily in the United States to compete in a charitable sports event.
For all these 4 categories of Exempt Individual, there are different rules for the period you are considered exempt and requirement to remain exempt.

More Articles: Tax for Aliens
1. The U.S. Visas
2. U.S. Tax Filing Requirements for Non-Residents
3. Substantial Presence Test
4. Social Security and Medicare (FICA) Taxes for Non-resident Exempt Individual
5. U.S. Tax Treaties for Professors, Teachers and Researchers
6. U.S. Tax Treaties for Students and Apprentices
7. Mandatory Reporting of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts
8. The U.S. Visas

More Articles: Complete List of Articles

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