Conducting home tution on H4 visa

[eb3guy]

Hi,

I am currently on an H1B visa and my wife on an H4. My wife who is an Indian classical dancer is hoping to teach dance to kids in our community for a nominal fee.Is an H4 holder allowed to conduct a home tution arrangement such as this ? I plan to delcare any income I earn as income from other sources. Is there any legal roadblock to implementing this plan?

Thanks,
Spouse of a frustrated H4 visa holder.

[raghvi]

Hi,

I am currently on an H1B visa and my wife on an H4. My wife who is an Indian classical dancer is hoping to teach dance to kids in our community for a nominal fee.Is an H4 holder allowed to conduct a home tution arrangement such as this ? I plan to delcare any income I earn as income from other sources. Is there any legal roadblock to implementing this plan?

Thanks,
Spouse of a frustrated H4 visa holder.

This would be treated as business income for your spouse. Officially I believe your spouse cannot do this. Plus there are considerations of child safety and security too.

This is my opinion not legal advice.

[kabkaba]

I understand your frustration, but unfortunately that is no allowed. She can do that without pay as a purely voluntary activity.

[eb3guy]

I understand your frustration, but unfortunately that is no allowed. She can do that without pay as a purely voluntary activity.

Thanks guys for your replies.

So even if I report any additional income earned,since we file jointly, an H4 cannot earn anything at all? They cannot seek employment and cannot even generate pocket change through own initiative?

[kabkaba]

H4 dependents do not have work authorization. Work is not just a job, in this case she is considered self-employed, but still employed. The exception is any volunteer activity where all other persons in the same position are also purely volunteers. This is all immigration law, it has nothing to do with tax law. Even undocumented workers (illegal aliens) are required to pay taxes on their income (and some do), but they are still in violation of immigration law.
Whether something is qualified as work or not is determined by the nature of the activity and the position and not by whether it is paid or not. For example investing in stocks and earning income from investments is not work and anybody can do that, but trading stocks in a speculative manner is work and that is not allowed.

[eb3guy]

H4 dependents do not have work authorization. Work is not just a job, in this case she is considered self-employed, but still employed. The exception is any volunteer activity where all other persons in the same position are also purely volunteers. This is all immigration law, it has nothing to do with tax law. Even undocumented workers (illegal aliens) are required to pay taxes on their income (and some do), but they are still in violation of immigration law.
Whether something is qualified as work or not is determined by the nature of the activity and the position and not by whether it is paid or not. For example investing in stocks and earning income from investments is not work and anybody can do that, but trading stocks in a speculative manner is work and that is not allowed.

Aprreciate the detailed reply. I was reasearching this subject elsewhere and came across reasoning similar to yours. I was under the impression as long as you declared all earned income, we could have some small home based earning setup.I have only my ignorance to blame. Time to break the bad news to the wife.She was really looking forward to this.Sigh!