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Filing Your Tax Return with IIE’s Participant Tax Services

On behalf of some programs that IIE administers, IIE has partnered with Sprintax, an online tax filing solution designed for non-residents, to provide you with the necessary tax forms to complete your tax filing requirements. If you are unsure if your grant or scholarship includes tax services, please review your grant document, scholarship letter or consult your IIE contact.

All individuals who are present in the U.S. on a J or F visa must file a U.S. Nonresident Alien Income Tax Return and/or Statement for Exempt Individuals (Form 8843). If you received funding from IIE, you will receive a Form 1042-S documenting your taxable funding by March 15 via the Sprintax system. You must use Form 1042-s when completing your tax return (Form 1040NR, Form 8843 and state tax returns, if applicable).

About Sprintax

Sprintax is an online US tax preparation system for international students and scholars. It will guide you through the 1040NR tax return process and prepare compliant Federal and State tax returns. Please note: if your program took place over more than one calendar year, you will file taxes twice – once for each calendar year.

  • Security: All information will be stored in a secure database that requires log-in. Sprintax complies with all relevant obligations under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 
  • Support Features: Sprintax incorporates live chat functionality to assist you through the completion of your profile. If you have any questions about your tax filing(s), you should wait until you have access to your Sprintax profile and then use the chat to ask Sprintax’s staff.
  • Sprintax Frequently Asked Questions: FAQs can be found at https://www.sprintax.com/faq.html (please disregard any information about fees charged).

Once you have all your tax forms (1042s and if applicable a W2 or 1099) issued by IIE and other entities and you are ready to start preparing your tax return, IIE has arranged free access to Sprintax Tax Preparation for you. Sprintax will guide you through the tax preparation process, arrange the necessary documents and check if you’re due a tax refund. 

If you are required to file through IIE, you CANNOT file by yourself or through another tax service. even if:

  • You were sponsored for ONLY one month
  • No one at IIE contacted you to file with IIE’s participant tax service (you should send an email to tax@iie.org for the filing instructions)
  • Your IIE sponsorship ended during the year
  • You returned to your home country
  • You have a new sponsorship elsewhere
  • Your new sponsorship gave you more money than IIE did
  • Your school offers an easy tax service

Do not file a tax return with only your non-IIE income and then register with IIE’s participant tax service to file a tax return with only your IIE income. The IRS requires that each person files ONLY one (1) tax return each year. If you file more than one tax return in a year, the IRS will require that you file an amended tax return at your own cost.

If you decide NOT to file your IIE income at all, IIE’s participant tax service and your sponsor will not be responsible if the IRS decides to audit your tax return.

If you receive funding from IIE, your sponsor may pay the federal taxes on your scholarship income but will not pay any additional tax that is attributable to your non-IIE income such as wages and scholarship from your university, college, school, or other organization. Please review your grant document, scholarship letter or consult your IIE contact to confirm. 

Tax Equalization

If you have other income such as wages from employment or taxable scholarship income from non-IIE sources and you overpaid federal taxes, you may be entitled to a refund or subject to additional taxes if you underpaid federal taxes. Please note if you are getting a refund due to your IIE income, you will receive an email with additional information on how to return it to IIE/your sponsor. A calculation will be completed by using the grant payments you received from IIE and applicable scholarship-related exclusion and deductions to determine if your IIE sponsor gets a refund or owes taxes. The difference between the tax liability on the tax return and the tax liability on the equalization summary is the tax liability on your non-IIE income.