Below are several tax resources and services for F-1 international students. Scroll below to learn more about each service and choose the best option for you. Please choose only ONE service to file your tax return. If you have questions, please reach out to the respective service and their contacts. The ISSS team are not qualified tax professionals and cannot provide tax advice.
Sprintax
Sprintax provides you with an easy-to-use tax preparation software designed for nonresident students and scholars in the US. After you login to Sprintax, you will be asked a series of questions about the time you have spent in the US over recent years. Sprintax will then determine your tax status.
Need help? If you need help while using Sprintax, you can contact their support team using their 24/7 Live Chat Help or FAQ section on their website.
Sprintax Nonresident Tax Webinars
In this tax webinar, international students, scholars and professionals will be run through everything they need to know about nonresident tax for the 2023 tax season. Topics will include who must file, tax residency, FICA, State returns, implications of misfiling as well as how to use Sprintax to prepare a compliant tax return.
Click HERE for Sprintax Webinar Schedule
All workshops will cover the following topics:
- An overview of tax for nonresident students and scholars
- Who must file a 2020 US tax return
- What income forms students/scholars may receive
- Forms that need to be completed and sent to the IRS
- We cover terms like FICA, ITIN and Form 1098-T
- What happens if students don’t file, or misfile
- State tax returns
- IRS stimulus payments
- Sprintax overview
Other Sprintax Resources:
NonResident Tax Help Group (NoRTH)
The NoRTH & UMBC Tax Clinic provides free tax services to individuals with a school, nonprofit, or government email address. If you have an email that ends in .edu, .org, or .gov., you are eligible to become a member and utilize our free services. Other organization email addresses, or those from organizations that are based outside of the U.S., may have a different ending, but can also meet our criteria. If you have any questions about membership, please feel free to contact us at UMBC.taxhelp@nrtaxhelp.org.
We provide free tax software, tools, guides, and video demos that are available on demand 24/7. We also provide individual support through remote office hours sessions. Appointments for all our events are available from now through mid-April.
To request your free membership please click on the following link: NoRTH& UMBC Membership Request
Other Resources
On-Campus assistance: Because taxes are not a University-related responsibility, unfortunately there are not tax experts on campus that can give tax advice. The ISSS office can try to help with extremely basic questions, but please keep in mind that taxes are a completely separate professional field that we are not trained in and we cannot legally give tax advice without proper training!
In the Community: There are many tax prep companies, such as H&R Block, that you will see in your community. Please be very careful in going to a place like this, as many tax professionals there are only trained on Resident taxes and won’t have the expertise to correctly help you with your NRA tax return.
Students Recommend:
- Beverly Bareham, Certified Public Accountant.http://www.barehamcpa.com/
- Eli S. Noff, Esq., CPA, Frost & Associates, LLC, 888 Bestgate Road, Suite 400, Annapolis, MD 21401, (410) 497-5947, www.frosttaxlaw.com