FAFSA for work abroad Forum

[Zara]

I've been working in Japan for the last 2 years. I am paid by the Japanese government and my pay is tax exempt...so i have no w2's and no income in the US for last year. Does this mean I mark "I will not file" and put $0 as my income?

[pizzaface]

I'm pretty sure that you still have to file even if you don't have any taxable US income. I filled out both a 1040 as well as form 2555EZ http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f2555ez.pdf. You don't pay any tax on income below $91400 USD, but I'm pretty sure you're required to file nonetheless.

Once I filled out those forms, I've still managed to run into a bit of trouble because there is a discrepancy between my adjusted gross income and my money earned because my foreign income is exempt from tax (again under $91400 USD) and apparently the FAFSA does not approve.

HTH, if you have any other questions or anything feel free to PM me

[wildbillkj]

I am in the same boat here in Japan. I just put a zero for both in fafsa. And the poster above is correct you gotta file the 1040 and 2555ez. Though Im guessing you got these in the mail recently. Well I did anyway.

[Bikeflip]

Granted, it's for Korea, but...

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtop ... c&start=30

Foreign taxes + FAFSA = FML

[Zara]

I am in the same boat here in Japan. I just put a zero for both in fafsa. And the poster above is correct you gotta file the 1040 and 2555ez. Though Im guessing you got these in the mail recently. Well I did anyway.

so do you know if putting zeros for both is the correct way or did you just do it that way because it didnt work the other way? It seems like putting zeros is a false representation because it asks for ALL income, wages, etc and doesnt specify that it is only the taxable kind.

I ended up putting my income amount for AGI and for Total income on Fafsa but not on the 1040 because it wouldn't work any other way. On 1040 I put it for line 7 but put 0 for line 22. Does anyone know what you are supposed to do?

I don't want to mess it up because Harvard is really strict about all the documents lining up and being consistent.