Working for 4 months on L1 visa & tax

[nchilinski]

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can assist. Last year my partner worked for approximately 4 months on an L1 visa in Massachusetts before returning to live and work in the UK.

We were (wrongly) under the impression he would declare his US earnings here in the UK on his self assessment, but we believe now we were completely wrong.

After doing some research it looks like he may have to file a federal and state return, although it is now passed the deadline...

Problem is, firstly he never filed a 1040-C before leaving as he was never advised to do so. & he has never been given a W2. He does have some pay slips. It looks like he earnt approximately $18,000 in total. From one wage slip we can find his total year to date earnings were $14762.58 with taxes and deductions totalling 3721.76 year to date).

These taxes and deductions include Social Security tax, Medicare tax, Federal tax and Pri-State tax.

There is a possibilty that he may have paid enough, or more tax, than what he actually needed.

Does anyone know how to go about filing his returns or if he needs to?

If he doesn't, is he going to be unable to ever visit the US again. I'm worried if he did he would be in serious trouble when he enters immigration at the airport if anything flagged up.

I have contacted one company who speciailises in tax help, but he quoted £165 per hour minimum which seems very steep.

Thanks

[inadmissible]

It is fairly simple work, given that he is filing as a non-resident alien (2004 Form 1040NR-EZ, Form 1-NR/PY).
You should try to get a tax preparer to quote a flat rate, so that there are no surprises.

GBP165 is a great deal if they finish the work in an hour and a half!

I doubt he will face problems with immigration authorities for not filing his return. But, if he expects to be posted there for work again, it will just make his future tax filings more complicated. Filing a tax return is just part of the cost of working in (or doing business in) the United States.