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International Tax Information for Nonresident Aliens Scholarships & Fellowships

The table below indicates which countries have tax treaties with the United States in which some, or all, of scholarship and/or fellowship amounts are tax exempt, considering certain conditions are met.

If a student’s country of residence exists on the table below and they meet the criteria in Column B and Column C, scholarship and/or fellowship amounts qualify for a tax exemption and the following tax form needs to be completed.

Form W-8BEN: Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Withholding.

If a country of residence does not exist on the table below, Form W-8BEN is not necessary because a tax treaty benefit does not exist.

DESCRIPTION OF TABLE COLUMNS

Column A: Students’ country of permanent citizenship.

Column B: Maximum length of exemption. After the maximum years in the USA has been reached, the individual is subject to federal tax withholding.

EXAMPLE: A student from Indonesia has been in the USA for 6 years and has a $5,000 scholarship. The $5,000 scholarship is taxable because the student has been in the USA over the 5 year limit.

Column C: Maximum scholarship/fellowship amount for exemption. The only country that has a limit on the scholarship/fellowship amount is if it’s a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the limit is $10,000. Anything over $10,000 is taxable.

Column D: The tax treaty article citation.

COLUMN A	COLUMN B	COLUMN C	COLUMN D
Country of Residence	Maximum Presence in USA	Maximum Compensation	Treaty Article Citation
BANGLADESH	2 years	No limit	21(2)
CHINA – PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC	No limit	No limit	20(b)
COMMONWEALTH OF IS®	5 years	$10,000	VI(1)
CYPRUS	5 years	No limit	21(1)
CZECH REPUBLIC	5 years	No limit	21(1)
EGYPT	5 years	No limit	23(1)
ESTONIA	5 years	No limit	20(1)
FRANCE	5 years	No limit	21(1)
GERMANY	4 years	No limit	20(3)
ICELAND	5 years	No limit	19(1)
INDONESIA	5 years	No limit	19(1)
ISRAEL	5 years	No limit	24(1)
KAZAKSTAN	5 years	No limit	19
KOREA	5 years	No limit	21(1)
LATVIA	5 years	No limit	20(1)
LITHUANIA	5 years	No limit	20(1)
MOROCCO	5 years	No limit	18
NETHERLANDS	3 years	No limit	22(2)
NORWAY	5 years	No limit	16(1)
PHILIPPINES	5 years	No limit	22(1)
POLAND	5 years	No limit	18(1)
PORTUGAL	5 years	No limit	23(1)
ROMANIA	5 years	No limit	20(1)
RUSSIA	5 years	No limit	18
SLOVAK REPUBLIC	5 years	No limit	21(1)
SLOVENIA	5 years	No limit	20(1)
SPAIN	5 years	No limit	22(1)
THAILAND	5 years	No limit	22(1)
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO	5 years	No limit	19(1)
TUNISIA	5 years	No limit	20
UKRAINE	5 years	No limit	20
VENEZUELA	5 years	No limit	21(1)

Note (®): This represents the U.S.S.R income tax treaty which includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Tax Treaties can be found at http://www.irs.gov/businesses/international/article/0,,id=96739,00.html.

If you have additional questions regarding tax treaties, please call or e-mail the contact below with any questions or to set up an appointment.

        Sara Marcotte, Accountant
        487-2449
        sjmarcot@mtu.edu