# Advice on eligibility for UK-US tax treaty



## nending (Mar 1, 2012)

Hi there. I have a question regarding the tax treaty between the US and the UK, and I was wondering if anybody has had any experience with that.

I am originally from Germany, but I was living and working in the UK for 8 years before moving to the US 5 months ago. Here in the US I work at a university which is also paying my salary. I am going to move back to the UK next year where I'm going to continue working. So my country of citizenship is Germany, my country of tax residence is the UK, and the country I'm currently living and working in is the US.

Initially I was told by the university that I can participate in the UK-US tax treaty and I was therefore exempt from paying federal tax in 2011. However, after filing my tax return a couple of weeks ago I was told by the IRS that I am not eligible for the UK-US tax treaty and that I owe a substantial amount of tax. Nobody at the university could really tell me why my eligibility status has changed suddenly. Does that have something to do with the fact that my country of citizenship and country of tax residence don’t match? Has anybody had a similar experience?

Any advice would be much appreciated.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

You may want to take a look at a couple of articles and publications from the IRS website that may explain your situation:

Tax Topics - Topic 851 Resident and Non-Resident Aliens
Publication 519 (2010), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens
Publication 513 (02/2011), Tax Information for Visitors to the United States

It depends a bit on the exact type of visa you are on, how long your stay in the US is and how much time you have spent in the US in the current and prior tax years.
Cheers,
Bev


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