Wizard of Ozz <easytoremember123[at]email.com> wrote:
....
- quote -

See for example the instructions for form 1040 NR, pages 2-3:

"Who Must File:

File Form 1040 NR if any of the following ... applies to you:

1. You were ... engaged in a traddeor business in the USA...

2. .... not all of the US tax that you owe was withheld ....

3. ...

4. ..."

So as long as all of your US-source income is "not
effectively connected" income (i.e., it is just passive
investment income, no US wages or business income), and all
tax has been properly withheld (which is ensured by filing a
W-8 BEN with the payor), no tax return needs to be filed.

There is an equivalent language somewhere in Pub 519.

--vladimir

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

I have 2 questions.

1) Taking my money out of the US. I read in the misc.invest
FAQ the following:

After IRS rules passed in 2000, a financial institution must
withhold money from payments of US-source income to
individuals outside the US, unless the financial institution
qualifies as a "qualified intermediary", according to the
new 2000 rules, or if the institution agrees to disclose the
identities of all these beneficiaries to the IRS.'

I don't know which IRS rule talks about this. I'm a little
confused. As I understand it, my base money which I invest
in stocks through a brokerage account, and any subsequent
capital gains exclusively from stock transactions, are NOT
income. At the same time, I understand that as an NRA, the
dividends from those stocks are considered non-US-income,
and thus, the rules in the paragraph above don't apply to
them, but since they are income, then they are still taxed
at the flat rate of 30%, which my broker withholds
automatically before paying dividends to me. Am I wrong on
any of these points? Will my dividends be doubly withheld?
Will my capital gains be withheld? Also, if someone could
please signal me which IRS ruling talks about this, that
would also help VERY much.

2) From the misc.invest FAQ again:

If I filed Form W-8BEN and the appropriate tax has been
withheld, I will not have to send any money to the IRS in my
annual filing of Form 1040 NR. What's more, if I don't have
any other US source income, I will not need to file Form
1040 NR at all.'

My situation is the latter (don't have to file Form 1040 NR
at all). But in the IRS publications I've read, I haven't
found any mention about this. I could easily have missed it,
of course. Can anyone who knows signal me where to look (for
example: IRS publication xxx, on page xx)?

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->