Filing for the 8802: US Tax Residency

Okay. So we leave in about 20 days and I just received an email from my recruiter about the 8802 tax form for South Korea! Yikes! It takes 45 days to process (and thats good.) This process was confusing for me because taxes…yeah right. I don’t get it. So with phone calls to the IRS and visits to my grandma I was able to figure it out:

This is how I filled mine out, maybe it will help somebody out there who is having trouble sifting through the 12 pages of IRS directions.

Applicants name: Pretty straight forward- Your name.

Applicants Tax ID number: Social security number.

1. Applicants name and TAX ID number if different from above. Same as above

2. Applicants address during the calendar year for which certification is requested, including country and ZIP of postal code. Permanent Address. So for this one I had a hard time because EPIK keeps things like where you will be living a secret until you get there. So I called the IRS and told them my perdicament. They suggested that I just put down my permanent address and have whoever lives at that address (my parents) send me the documents when they come. Really what they want is somewhere to forward the 6166 documents to. (the 6166 is the residency certificate and you get that once you turn in your 8802.)

3a. Mail form 6166 to the following address. Same as above or permanent address. This was also confusing to me, but was cleared up by calling the IRS again! They said to put the address in either or and just state “same as above or below.”

3b. Appointee information: If you have an appointee- a person who is responsible for your taxes, which in my case is my grandma and she works for the IRS so her information was provided. It is not necessary to have an appointee.

4a. Applicant is: Individual and a U.S. citizen.

5. Yes. 1040. I filed a 1040.

6. No need to fill out anything if you checked “Yes” above.

7. Calendar year: 2010. The IRS said that after December 1st, we have to file another one for the year of 2011.

8. Tax period: 200912.

9. Purpose: Income tax.

10. Statement: Name, SSN, is a US resident and will continue to be throughout the current tax year.

11. Number of certifications you need. Find South Korea and next to it put a number value. You can get up to 20 and still pay $35. Beyond 20 you pay $5 extra.

12a. Total number from all columns: #

13. Amount of money due:

That is it! Make sure you sign and date it! This is how I filled mine out, it will probably differ slightly depending on who you are and how you file your taxes. If you filed them late then I think you have to attach a copy of you taxes to this form. You can pay online and fax it or mail it. Now that is submitted my family will mail it to me when I am in South Korea.

Below are some IRS sites that have a bit more of information:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8802.pdf – The 8802 form.

http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8802/ch02.html -Some instructions about how to fill it out.

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=122559,00.html -To understand what the 6166 really is.