US Taxes
Normally employees pay Federal Income Tax and State Income Tax while working in the USA. Usually, you can recover 100% of them, but if you have enrned more money, you might have to leave part of the taxes paid in the US Treasury (you cannot recover this small part of your taxes paid).
These taxes go to the Internal Revenue Service – IRS – and to the Tax Department in the state in which you work. There are a few states which do not levy State Income Tax – Alaska, Florida, Nevada, Texas, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming, New Hampshire and Tennessee. If you have worked in any of these states you will have to recover only the Federal Income Tax you have paid. During the last season the average amount of refunded Federal tax per student was around $ 700, and of State taxes – around $ 200.
Some employers are not well aquainted with the tax regulation for J-1 visa holders and improperly withhold social and medicare taxes from your check, as they would do to a regular American employee. These are the so called Social Security Tax and Medicare Tax - or FICA. If you have kept the requirements of the program and if you keep all your documents, the IRS will refund you all of the FICA taxes. More information on this you can find in our offices.
It is possible that you have paid some other types of taxes, like local taxes, state disability and workforce taxes, and others, which are insignificant and cannot be recovered. But, the good news is that they are used to increase the amount of your Federal tax refund.
Specific documents, related to your US Tax Refund:
W-2 form
This document is issued by your employer after the end of the year. It contains exact details about the income you have earned and the taxes you have paid working for him. It is the employer’s duty to send you the W-2 form between 1-st and 31-st of January.
If you have given a wrong or no Bulgarian address to your employer, you might have problems receiving the form. Also, it is possible that the W-2 gets lost while passing through the post offices. Do not worry, if anything like this happens – in most cases you can still get your money back using your last paycheck.
Fortunately, more and more employers initiate the uploading of all the W-2 forms on special web-sites, so the delivery problems can be avoided. If you have worked for a big company with thousands of employees, it is highly probable that your W-2 form is only one click away. Please, refer to our consultants for more information.
Social Security Card
It is issued by the Social Security Administration in the beginning of your first working year in the US. The number on this card – the Social Security Number (SSN) is similar to the Bulgarian EGN. The IRS uses it as an identification number. If you have lost, damaged or have not received at all your Social Security Card, call any of our offices for assistance.
