The most stressful thing every spring. There are a few traps Taiwanese students fall into in particular, so read this before you start filing.

Filing Taxes

Salary (Graduate Research Assistant GRA / Scholarship / Teaching Assistant)

W2 forms are usually issued electronically via Workday or mailed to your address by the end of February the following year.

There have been cases where the school staff failed to issue the W2 and there was no record in the system. Be sure to follow up with the university.

If you receive a 1042-S, make sure the code in box 13b is TW for Taiwan, not CN.

How Do I Actually File? Which Software Should I Use?

  • Residency status: Most F-1/J-1 students are nonresident aliens for tax purposes during their first several years in the U.S., which means you file Form 1040-NR, not the Form 1040 that U.S. residents use.
  • You must file even with no income: If you were in the U.S. in F/J status during the year, you are required to submit Form 8843 — even if you earned nothing at all. A lot of people miss this one.
  • Sprintax: Cornell provides international students with Sprintax, software built specifically for nonresident tax filing. The university normally supplies a discount code that covers the federal return at no cost (state returns usually carry a separate fee). The access code and instructions are published each year by the Office of Global Learning — see the university’s tax information page.
  • Deadline: The federal filing deadline is normally April 15 each year (pushed back if it falls on a weekend or holiday). New York State returns are due the same day.

Cornell Financial Services Tax Sessions

A Zoom information session is held every other Wednesday from 10:00 to 11:00 AM. You can register here and ask any tax-related questions.

Foreign Gift Reporting

Typically, the donor (giver) is responsible for reporting gift taxes. However, if you receive a foreign gift of over $100,000 USD, the donee (receiver) must file Form 3520, “Annual Return To Report Transactions With Foreign Trusts and Receipt of Certain Foreign Gifts.”

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Last updated 27 Jul 2026, 22:55 -0400 . history