Thank you! I'm here on an H1B, not a student visa. I did look up the treaty and confirmed it's Article 10 that applies to my situation with the 25% rate. Do you know if I need to attach any specific form to my 1040NR to document this treaty claim? Or do I just report the income with the 25% rate applied?

Since you're on an H1B and this is a standard treaty provision for the reduced dividend withholding rate, you typically don't need to attach Form 8833. You'll report the dividend income on your 1040NR and apply the treaty rate directly. In Sprintax, when you enter your dividend income, there should be an option to indicate that it's subject to a treaty rate. Make sure you select "India" as your country of residence for treaty purposes and the system should apply the correct 25% rate. For the period where no withholding was done, you'll need to calculate and pay the 25% tax on those dividends.

Not necessarily. If OP was mistakenly treated as a US person for part of the year, Fidelity might have issued a 1099-DIV instead of a 1042-S for those months with no withholding. They should check both documents.

Did you do it yourself or use a tax professional? I'm trying to figure out if I can handle an amendment myself or if I need to pay someone.

I did it myself using the same tax software I originally filed with. Most of the major tax platforms have an amendment feature that helps walk you through the process. It pre-fills a lot of the information from your original return, so you only need to focus on what's changing. I found it pretty straightforward, especially since I was just adding business expenses to my Schedule C. If your amendment is more complicated (like changing filing status or something more substantial), then getting professional help might make sense. But for adding missed deductions, you can probably handle it yourself.

File them separately! I made the mistake of trying to deal with everything at once and it created a huge mess. Do your 2023 taxes normally, then handle the 2022 amendment after. Keeps everything cleaner and prevents confusion.

We did file within the 30-day window! Our lawyers were really strict about that deadline. We didn't have any external investors at the exact time we incorporated and issued the initial shares. We did have some friends/family invest about 3 months later at a slightly higher valuation though. Would the IRS look at that later valuation and try to apply it retroactively to our founder share purchases?

Good that you filed within the 30-day window - that's a common mistake that can't be fixed later. The IRS generally wouldn't apply a later valuation retroactively if there was a legitimate basis for the initial valuation. At formation, with no product, revenue, or investment, valuing common shares at just above par value is typically reasonable. The key is whether there were any substantive negotiations or commitments from investors already in place when you incorporated, which might suggest a higher valuation already existed. The 3-month gap before your friends/family round provides decent separation, and startups often see legitimate value creation in those early months that justifies a higher valuation. Just make sure you have documentation of the company's state at incorporation versus 3 months later to show real progress that warranted the increase.

I've seen it happen. Friend was audited last year and the IRS specifically questioned the valuation used for their founder shares. They had purchased at $.001 but had term sheets from investors at $.08 in progress when they did it. IRS argued they'd undervalued by millions and owed taxes on the difference. Huge mess.

That's a good point, but isn't the higher standard deduction also part of TCJA and set to expire? So wouldn't the standard deduction also go back down in 2026, making itemizing more likely again?

You're absolutely right - I should have mentioned that. The increased standard deduction is indeed part of TCJA and scheduled to expire after 2025. Pre-TCJA, the standard deduction was much lower (around $12,700 for married filing jointly in 2017, adjusted for inflation). If no legislation is passed, the standard deduction would indeed drop significantly in 2026, which would make itemizing deductions beneficial for many more taxpayers. So the combination of lower standard deduction, unlimited SALT deductions, and higher mortgage interest cap could create a substantial change in tax strategy for homeowners in high-tax states.

The $750k mortgage interest deduction limit is per return, not per person. So on a joint return, your total limit is $750k regardless of how many borrowers are on the mortgage. If you file separately, each spouse gets a $375k limit. This is also true for the pre-TCJA $1M limit that would return after 2025 if no new legislation passes. On a joint return it would be $1M total, or $500k each if filing separately.

The calculation works the same way for SEP IRAs. Your basis is still the total of your non-deductible contributions. The difference is that most SEP IRA contributions are made by employers and are always pre-tax, so they don't create basis. If you made additional non-deductible contributions to your SEP IRA (uncommon but possible), only those would count toward your basis. Most people with only employer-funded SEP IRAs have a basis of $0, meaning the full conversion is taxable.

Thanks for clearing that up! My SEP was entirely funded through my self-employment business, and I always took the deduction for those contributions. Sounds like my basis really is $0 then, which explains why TurboTax is calculating tax on the full conversion amount.

Oh no, this sounds complicated! I do have another traditional IRA that I didn't convert. Does this mean I need to include that one in my calculations too? My tax software didn't ask about my other accounts at all!

Yes, you absolutely need to include your other Traditional IRA in the calculation! This is a common mistake that many tax software programs don't properly warn you about. When you complete Form 8606, you'll need to report the December 31st fair market value of ALL your IRA accounts (traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE) on line 6, not just the one you converted. This changes the pro-rata calculation of how much of your conversion is taxable. Definitely go back and check this in your tax software - there should be a place to enter the total value of all your IRAs, even the ones you didn't touch for the conversion.