All individuals who have earned income in the U.S. are required to file a tax return for the year during which they worked. Your tax return should show your earnings for the previous year, the taxes you paid and the total amount of taxes owed or refunded.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the U.S. government agency that collects taxes. You can get forms, instructions, and information from their website.

Step 1: Get your W-2 form

The W-2 summarizes your earnings and the taxes withheld from your earnings during the previous year.

At the beginning of the year, your employer will send you a W-2 Form (your employer is required by law to mail your W-2 to you by February 15 following the year wages were earned). Since it takes too long to get a mail delivered to some countries, and mails sometimes get lost in the ocean, it’s better to get the electronic version of your W-2 from your employer. Thus, by the end of December, send a friendly reminder to your HR department or employer that you are looking forward to receiving your W-2 form. Your letter might look like the following:

Dear ‘Employer name’,

I hope you are doing well.

This is ‘Jumanazar aka ’, I have worked for you as a cashier during summer 2019. Once again, thank you for hosting me and giving me a job in the U.S., I really enjoyed working at _______. As an exchange student, we are required to file taxes, I am reaching out to see if you can email the electronic version of my W-2 form once it is available.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon

Best regards

Jumanazar aka     

Please keep in mind, some employers send the w-2 forms to sponsor companies, and sponsor companies forward them to a local cooperator in your home country. So, if you tried multiple ways of contacting your employers and could not get a hold of them, please contact your local cooperator.

Step 2: File your taxes

Once you get your w-2 form, you are ready to file your taxes. Now, you have 2 options: filing yourself or using a professional tax service.

For many J-1 participants, filing a tax return is an extremely confusing, complicated and frankly boring task! At J1United, we offer the fastest, easiest and most amount of tax refunds.

Why choose us over other tax services:

• Affordable prices (We get it, you want the most amount of tax refund. We have a flexible pricing, where you pay based on the amount of your refund, plus, we have a cap on the maximum amount we charge, so that you don’t get overcharged)
• Reliable (Refunding your taxes is a subtle matter, you do not want to trust inexperienced ‘tax preparers’ out there. We have years of experience in successfully filling taxes for J 1 Students and improving every year)
• Fast (Keep in mind, J1 students can not file taxes online, prepared tax forms must be send by mail to the IRS. Having office in the U.S. allows us to send out the forms in efficient manner).
• 360 Support (Some companies help you to file or create your tax forms, and their job is done. They do not care about the issues arising after filling your taxes. You pay ‘handsome’ fees to them and not get refund after all. But, at J1United, we care and available for support until you get all the money you deserve).

You can get a free consulting from J1united team, so do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions regarding tax matters. Also, do not forget to share this article with your friends.