Something nobody's mentioned yet is that resident vs. non-resident status affects how your investment income is taxed too. As a non-resident, you're only taxed on US-source income, but as a resident, you're taxed on your worldwide income. If you have investments or bank accounts back in your home country, the filing status makes a huge difference. Non-residents might avoid tax on foreign interest, dividends, etc., while residents have to report everything (though foreign tax credits can help avoid double taxation). I learned this the hard way after filing as a resident my first year when I should've been non-resident. Had to amend my return when I realized I unnecessarily reported (and paid tax on) my foreign investment income.

I went through this exact same confusion last year! After months of research and consulting multiple sources, here's what I learned that might help: The key issue is that your F1 time from August 2022 to May 2024 falls under the "exempt individual" category for the substantial presence test. Students are exempt for their first 5 calendar years, so those days don't count toward your 183-day requirement. This means you're only counting your H1B days from June 2024 onward, which is likely not enough to reach 183 days for 2024. So you'd typically file as a non-resident alien using Form 1040NR. However, definitely look into the First-Year Choice election that Mateo mentioned above. Since you'll be in the US all of 2025 on H1B, you'll likely meet the substantial presence test next year, which could make you eligible to elect resident status for part of 2024. This could be beneficial depending on your income sources and deductions. One more thing - make sure you check if your home country has a tax treaty with the US. Some treaties have special provisions for students transitioning to work visas that could affect your filing requirements. The safest approach is to run the numbers both ways (resident vs non-resident) and see which gives you better tax treatment, assuming you're eligible for the First-Year Choice election.

13 I ignored a similar warning last year and my payment went through fine. But one thing to be aware of - make sure your bank account info is 100% correct in EFTPS. Even one wrong digit can cause the payment to fail, and the error notification sometimes takes several days to appear.

I went through this exact same situation about 6 months ago! The EFTPS warning for new business enrollments is really common and usually nothing to worry about. What helped me was calling the EFTPS customer service line (1-888-353-4537) and having them verify my account status before proceeding with the payment. The representative confirmed that even though I was seeing the warning, my account was properly set up for Form 941 payments. She explained that there's often a lag between general EFTPS enrollment and when all the form-specific permissions show as fully active in their system. I proceeded with the payment despite the warning, got my confirmation number, and everything processed normally. The key is to make sure all your business information (EIN, banking details, etc.) is correct before hitting submit. Keep that confirmation number as proof you made the payment on time - that's what matters for avoiding penalties. One tip: if you're still nervous about it, you can always do a small test payment first to make sure everything works before submitting your full quarterly amount.

Hey there! I just went through this exact same situation about two weeks ago. My account showed the $0.00 balance change on a Wednesday evening, and sure enough, my transcript updated Thursday night with an 846 code showing my direct deposit date for the following Tuesday. The timing you mentioned (11:28 when you noticed the change) is actually pretty typical - I've noticed the IRS seems to push these account balance updates throughout the day, but the transcript updates with deposit dates usually happen overnight. One thing that really helped me stay sane during the wait was setting up text alerts through my bank so I'd know immediately when the deposit hit, rather than constantly checking my account balance. The whole process from seeing that $0.00 balance to having money in my account was exactly 6 days for me. Hang in there - based on what you're describing, it sounds like you're definitely in the final stretch! 🙌

That $0.00 balance update is definitely a great sign! I went through the same thing last month - account showed "still processing" for weeks, then suddenly switched to $0.00 owed on a Friday afternoon. My transcript updated that same night with an 846 code and DDD for the following Wednesday. The key thing to watch for is that 846 code on your transcript - that's when you'll see your actual direct deposit date. Based on your timeline (balance changing at 11:28 today), I'd expect your transcript to update tonight or tomorrow morning during their usual overnight processing window. Pro tip: if you're using the IRS2Go app, it sometimes shows transcript updates a few hours before the website does. Also, don't worry about those "Make a payment" buttons - they show up for everyone regardless of refund status. You're definitely in the home stretch now! 🎉

I went through this exact same situation two years ago and can definitely relate to the stress of discovering you've been reporting the wrong basis for multiple years! The consensus here is correct - you really should file amended returns for all three years (2020, 2021, 2022) rather than just correcting it going forward. I know it seems like a hassle, but Form 8606 creates an official paper trail with the IRS for your nondeductible contributions, and having incorrect basis amounts on file will cause problems down the road when you take distributions. One thing I'd add is to make sure you understand WHY your basis calculations were wrong in the first place. Common mistakes include not properly tracking contributions that span tax years (like contributions made in early 2021 for tax year 2020), or incorrectly including rollover amounts in your basis calculations. When you file your 1040-X forms, be very clear in Part III about what you're correcting. Something like "Correcting basis amount reported on Form 8606 for nondeductible IRA contributions" helps the IRS processors understand exactly what they're looking at. The good news is that since you haven't taken any distributions yet, this is purely a record-keeping correction with no immediate tax impact. But getting it fixed now will save you major headaches (and potentially double taxation) in the future.

I went through a very similar situation about 18 months ago - discovered I had been calculating my Form 8606 basis incorrectly for three consecutive years. The stress of realizing the mistake was overwhelming at first, but I can confirm that filing amended returns was absolutely the right path forward. One thing I learned during this process is that the IRS actually appreciates when taxpayers proactively correct these types of errors, especially when no additional tax is owed. In my case, like yours, I hadn't taken any distributions yet, so there was no immediate tax impact. The amendment process itself was more straightforward than I expected. For each year, I filed Form 1040-X with a corrected Form 8606 attached. In Part III of the 1040-X, I wrote something like "Correcting nondeductible IRA contribution basis reported on Form 8606 - see attached corrected form." The IRS processed all three amendments without any issues or follow-up questions. What really helped me was creating a detailed worksheet showing my correct basis calculations for each year, including how the errors carried forward from year to year. This became invaluable reference material when preparing the amendments and will be helpful for future tax filings. Don't beat yourself up too much about the mistake - Form 8606 can be tricky, and basis tracking errors are more common than you might think. The important thing is that you caught it before taking distributions and are taking steps to fix it properly.

12 I ran into this issue with a client last year. Another thing to keep in mind is that if your corporation owns more than 50% of the partnership, different rules may apply. In that case, the partnership might actually need to conform its tax year to your corporate tax year. It's called the "majority interest taxable year" rule.

This is exactly the kind of timing issue that trips up a lot of corporate taxpayers with partnership investments. One additional consideration I'd add is to make sure you're also tracking the character of income from the K-1 properly when it flows through to your corporate return. For example, if the partnership has Section 1231 gains, passive income, or foreign source income, those need to maintain their character when reported on your corporate return. The timing rule (including the K-1 on the return that encompasses the partnership's year-end) stays the same, but you want to make sure all the various income types are properly categorized. Also, if you have multiple partnership investments with different year-ends, it's helpful to create a tracking spreadsheet that shows which K-1s go on which corporate returns. This becomes especially important if you ever need to do lookbacks for prior year amendments or if you get audited.