Don't work and taxes
- Thread starter Alican
- Start date
I would check the IRS site.
I think if you had income in the previous year, you have to file even if you have no income this year.
It doesn't hurt to file in any case. You can probably even use one of the shorter forms. 1040EZ or something like that. Should only take an hour or less. Since you are a month+ late, I don't know what you should do. But, if you owed no taxes, it probably won't be so bad. The sooner you file, the better.
I think in the second year that you have no income, you don't have to file.
BUT. I don't really know. Check the irs web site.
-Ocelot
I think if you had income in the previous year, you have to file even if you have no income this year.
It doesn't hurt to file in any case. You can probably even use one of the shorter forms. 1040EZ or something like that. Should only take an hour or less. Since you are a month+ late, I don't know what you should do. But, if you owed no taxes, it probably won't be so bad. The sooner you file, the better.
I think in the second year that you have no income, you don't have to file.
BUT. I don't really know. Check the irs web site.
-Ocelot
JohnnyCash
Volunteer Moderator
Alican said:
No. You are not required to file income tax returns if you have no income whatsoever or if you earn a very little income. The only time you will need to file income tax-returns if you will have a taxable income wherein you would owe REQUIRED taxes to the govt., or if you would need to claim some kind of income-credit. I believe you understand the difference between 'filing an income tax-return' and 'paying an income tax'. Anyone can file income tax returns regardless of having income or not, but taxes would need to be paid by only those who earned taxable income.
Nevertheless, it is always advisable to file an income tax return even if you are not required to file it, regardless of whether you are unemployed or earn $0. This way, you can have record being it documented.
For naturalization purpose, you don't need to have a job or have filed income tax returns. You can still be naturalized even if you are unemployed, but USCIS would surely ask you about how you have been supporting yourself without a job. And if you have no visible means of income, then officer will definitely ask you about how you have been supporting yourself in the fact of having no visible means of income. If you don't come up with a reasonable explanation/reasoning about how you have been supporting yourself, then it would be USCIS automatic presumption that you are either involved in some kind of shady (illegal) activities like drug dealing, money laundry, prostitution, illegal gambling, or you might be working under the table (off the book). In that case, officer would have no choice other than just to deny your N-400 for having a bad moral character. And as you may already know that having a good moral character is very important in order to be naturalized.
You can overcome this automatic presumption of USCIS if you have no job by presenting proof of having enough cash in your bank account, or present tax-returns of someone who might have claimed you as a dependent on his/her tax-returns, or you can present proof that you are claiming some kind of welfare from the govt. if you are, or you can present evidence about someone giving/sending money to you to support you, or you can present an notorized affadivit from someone about supporting you. Good Luck.
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I think you are required to file. Nevertheless you may want to write to irs directly.
Back in early 90's, the irs officer who visited the school told us that even if you were present for "1" day in the previous year, you need to file and show that you had 0 income. So all of us who arrived on F1 in Dec had to file a return.
Although my experience is pretty old, if I were you, I will always file return.
While doing a search I came across this information:
http://taxes.about.com/od/taxtrouble/a/1999_tax_return_2.htm
http://taxes.about.com/od/taxtrouble/a/back_taxes.htm
or get free tax help for the following:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=105128,00.html
Back in early 90's, the irs officer who visited the school told us that even if you were present for "1" day in the previous year, you need to file and show that you had 0 income. So all of us who arrived on F1 in Dec had to file a return.
Although my experience is pretty old, if I were you, I will always file return.
While doing a search I came across this information:
http://taxes.about.com/od/taxtrouble/a/1999_tax_return_2.htm
http://taxes.about.com/od/taxtrouble/a/back_taxes.htm
or get free tax help for the following:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=105128,00.html
qwertyisback
Registered Users (C)
Alican said:
File it, you might be eligible for some crdits (e.g EIC), which might make IRS to pay to you.!!!! It won't take more than 30min to do it online with taxact or HR websites. Give a try. And don't forget my 10%, if you get money from IRS.
