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Last reviewed: October 14, 2026
Form 1040-NR, the U.S. Nonresident Alien Income Tax Return, taxes two kinds of income differently: income effectively connected with a US trade or business is taxed at the regular 10% to 37% brackets with no standard deduction, and US-source investment income that is not effectively connected is taxed at a flat 30% (or a lower treaty rate) on the gross amount. The 2025 Form 1040-NR is due April 15, 2026 if you received US wages subject to withholding and June 15, 2026 if you did not, and Form 4868 extends either one by six months. You file it only if the substantial presence test says you are a nonresident: fewer than 183 weighted days in the United States over three years. This guide maps the 2025 form and its schedules line by line from the PDFs on irs.gov, checked in October 2026.
Key numbers for Form 1040-NR (2025 form, filed in 2026):
| Item | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Due date with US wages subject to withholding | April 15, 2026; extended to October 15, 2026 with Form 4868 | Instructions for Form 1040-NR; Pub. 519 ch. 7 |
| Due date with no US wages | June 15, 2026; extended to December 15, 2026 with Form 4868 | IRC §6072(c); Pub. 519 ch. 7 |
| Tax-year 2026 return | April 15, 2027 (Thursday) or June 15, 2027 (Tuesday) | Same rules, 2027 calendar |
| Effectively connected income (ECI) | Graduated rates, 10% to 37%; standard deduction is zero | IRC §871(b), §63(c)(6)(B) |
| Income not effectively connected (Schedule NEC) | 30% of the gross amount, or the treaty rate | IRC §871(a) |
| Substantial presence test | 31 days this year AND 183 days counting this year ×1, last year ×1/3, the year before ×1/6 | IRC §7701(b)(3) |
| Filing statuses available | Single, married filing separately, qualifying surviving spouse (no joint, no head of household) | Instructions for Form 1040-NR |
| Deadline to keep deductions | Return filed within 16 months of its due date | IRC §874(a); Reg. §1.874-1(b) |
Save this cheat sheet — key numbers in one image.
A nonresident alien must file Form 1040-NR for 2025 if they were engaged in a trade or business in the United States at any time in 2025, or if they had US-source income reportable on Schedule NEC and not all of the tax on it was withheld. Table A in the 2025 instructions lists eight more triggers, including owing household employment tax, receiving HSA distributions, and having $400 or more of self-employment earnings while resident in a country that has a social security (totalization) agreement with the United States.
The trade-or-business trigger is broader than most people expect. Table A says you must file even if you have no income from the US business, no US-source income at all, or income that a treaty fully exempts. A founder whose US operation lost money still files.
Three groups are excused for 2025:
Being excused is not the same as being better off. A nonresident whose employer or broker withheld too much tax gets it back only by filing Form 1040-NR, and anyone excluding days of presence as a student or trainee still sends Form 8843.
You are a nonresident alien for a calendar year unless you pass the green card test (you were a lawful permanent resident at any time in the year) or the substantial presence test. Under IRC §7701(b)(3), you meet the substantial presence test for 2026 if you were physically present in the United States on at least 31 days in 2026 and the weighted total reaches 183 days: all of your 2026 days, plus one-third of your 2025 days, plus one-sixth of your 2024 days. Any part of a day counts as a day.
Pub. 519 gives the canonical near-miss: 120 days in each of three years counts as 120 + 40 + 20 = 180, which is not enough. Some days never count:
Exempt status runs out. A student stops being exempt after any part of five calendar years as an exempt student, teacher, or trainee, unless they show they do not intend to reside permanently in the United States. A teacher or trainee stops being exempt if they were exempt for any part of two of the six preceding years, with a narrow exception when a foreign employer paid all the compensation. Excluding exempt days requires Form 8843, filed with the return or, if you have no return to file, mailed by itself to Austin, TX 73301-0215 by the Form 1040-NR due date.
Two escape routes exist for people who pass the test anyway. The closer connection exception applies if you were present on fewer than 183 days in the current year, kept a tax home in a foreign country, and had a closer connection to that country than to the United States; you claim it on Form 8840. The treaty tie-breaker applies to someone who is a resident of both countries under their own laws: if the treaty assigns residence to the other country, you file Form 1040-NR with Form 8833 attached.
Interactive
Resident or nonresident for 2026?
Enter the days you were physically present in the United States in each year. Any part of a day counts, except transit under 24 hours and Canada or Mexico commuting days.
Counted in full.
Counted at one-third.
Counted at one-sixth.
Weighted days (183 needed)
187 days
You meet the substantial presence test for 2026: a resident alien unless an exception applies.
Substantial presence test, IRC §7701(b)(3): 31 days in 2026 and 183 weighted days (2026 × 1, 2025 × 1/3, 2024 × 1/6). The green card test, the first-year choice, and treaty tie-breakers are not modeled.
The default numbers belong to Lukas, a Berlin-based founder of a Delaware LLC who spends long stretches with US clients: 122 days in 2026, 150 in 2025, and 90 in 2024. His weighted total is 122 + 50 + 15 = 187 days, so he meets the substantial presence test for 2026 even though he spent only a third of the year in the country. Had he kept 2026 to 117 days, the total would have been 182 and he would have stayed a nonresident. Because his 2026 count is under 183, Lukas can still claim the closer connection exception on Form 8840 if his home, family, and business ties remain in Germany, or rely on the US–Germany treaty tie-breaker with Form 8833. Without either, he becomes a US resident for tax purposes from his first day in the country in 2026, which makes 2026 a dual-status year if he was a nonresident in 2025 and puts his worldwide income from that day on a US return.
Form 1040-NR is due on the 15th day of the 4th month after the tax year ends if you were an employee and received wages subject to US income tax withholding, and on the 15th day of the 6th month if you did not. For the 2025 calendar year that means April 15, 2026 or June 15, 2026; IRC §6072(c) is the statute behind the later date. Form 4868, filed by the original due date, extends the return six months, to October 15, 2026 for wage earners and December 15, 2026 for everyone else. An extension moves the filing date, not the payment date, so tax still owed after the original due date accrues interest and the failure-to-pay penalty. The full list of autumn dates is in our October 15 extension deadline guide.
For the 2026 tax year the dates are April 15, 2027 (a Thursday) and June 15, 2027 (a Tuesday).
The deadline that bites hardest is not printed on the form. Under IRC §874(a) and Treasury Regulation §1.874-1(b), a nonresident alien gets deductions and credits only on a timely, true and accurate return, and "timely" means filed within 16 months of the due date (assuming you filed the prior year's return or this is your first required year). Miss that window and the IRS can tax your gross effectively connected income with no deductions at all. For a 2025 return due June 15, 2026, the 16 months run out on October 15, 2027.
Page 1 is for effectively connected income only. Income that is not effectively connected goes on Schedule NEC, and treaty-exempt income goes on line 1k and nowhere else. The lines below are from the 2025 form.
| Line | What goes there | Notes from the 2025 instructions |
|---|---|---|
| 1a | Wages from Forms W-2, box 1 | Pay for work performed in the United States is generally effectively connected |
| 1b–1h | Household wages, unreported tips, Medicaid waiver payments, dependent care and adoption benefits, Form 8919 wages, other earned income | Same items as Form 1040, lines 1b–1h |
| 1k | Total income exempt by a treaty | From Schedule OI, item L, line 1(e); never repeated on another line |
| 1z | Add lines 1a through 1h | Line 1k is not included |
| 2b | Taxable interest | Only interest from assets effectively connected with your US business |
| 3a / 3b | Qualified / ordinary dividends | Effectively connected dividends only; portfolio dividends go to Schedule NEC |
| 4a–5b | IRA distributions, pensions and annuities | Effectively connected portion only; other US-source pensions go to Schedule NEC, line 7 |
| 7a | Capital gain or (loss) | Effectively connected gains, from Schedule D (Form 1040) |
| 8 | Additional income from Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 10 | Business profit from Schedule C, rental income treated as effectively connected, scholarships |
| 9 | Total effectively connected income | Lines 1z, 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, 7a, and 8 |
| 10 | Adjustments from Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 26 | Student loan interest, educator expenses, self-employed health insurance |
| 11a | Adjusted gross income | Line 9 minus line 10 |
Lines 6, 1i, and 1j are reserved. A top-of-page question asks every filer whether they received, sold, or exchanged a digital asset in 2025, and it must be answered even with no Form 1099-DA.
Page 2 turns adjusted gross income into tax, adds the Schedule NEC tax, and subtracts what was already withheld or paid.
| Line | What goes there | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Itemized deductions from Schedule A (Form 1040-NR) | The standard deduction is allowed only to students and business apprentices eligible under Article 21(2) of the US–India treaty |
| 13a | Qualified business income deduction (Form 8995 or 8995-A) | Requires effectively connected business income |
| 13b | Exemption for estates and trusts | Individuals cannot claim an exemption for 2025 |
| 13c | Additional deductions from Schedule 1-A, line 38 | Tips, overtime, and the senior deduction follow the Form 1040 rules; nonresidents generally cannot take the car loan interest deduction |
| 15 | Taxable income | Line 11b minus line 14 |
| 16 | Tax | Tax Table or Tax Computation Worksheet in the Form 1040 instructions; married nonresidents generally use the married filing separately rates |
| 19–22 | Child tax credit, Schedule 3 credits | Child tax credit only for US nationals and residents of Canada and Mexico, and in part residents of South Korea and India |
| 23a | Tax on income not effectively connected | From Schedule NEC, line 15 |
| 23b | Other taxes from Schedule 2, line 21 | Self-employment tax appears here only when a totalization agreement puts you in the US system |
| 23c | Transportation tax | 4% of US-source gross transportation income that is not effectively connected |
| 24 | Total tax | Lines 22 plus 23d |
| 25a–25c | Federal income tax withheld on Forms W-2, 1099, and other forms | |
| 25e / 25f / 25g | Withholding from Forms 8805, 8288-A, and 1042-S | 25g is where 30% withholding on dividends and similar income gets credited |
| 26 | 2025 estimated tax payments | Paid with Form 1040-ES (NR) |
| 33 | Total payments | Lines 25d through 26 plus line 32 |
| 35a–35e | Refund | Line 35e lets you have the check mailed to a foreign address |
| 36 / 37 / 38 | Applied to 2026 estimates / amount you owe / estimated tax penalty |
There is no earned income credit for a nonresident alien (line 27 is reserved), no head of household rate, and no joint return. A nonresident married to a US citizen or resident can make the one-time election to be treated as a resident for the whole year, but that election is made on a joint Form 1040, not on Form 1040-NR.
Schedule NEC (Form 1040-NR) taxes US-source passive income, the "fixed or determinable annual or periodical" income that IRC §871(a) taxes at 30% of the gross amount with no deductions. Each item goes in a column by rate: 10%, 15%, 30%, or "other" for a treaty rate such as 0% or 5%. Lines 1a–1c are dividends and dividend equivalents, 2a–2c interest, 3 through 6 royalties and real property income, 7 pensions, 8 social security benefits, 9 capital gains from line 18, 10 and 11 gambling winnings, and 12 anything else. Line 13 totals each column, line 14 applies the rates, and line 15 carries to Form 1040-NR, line 23a.
Capital gains have their own trap. A nonresident who was in the United States for fewer than 183 days during the tax year owes no US tax on capital gains that are not effectively connected; one present for 183 days or more owes 30% on net US-source capital gains under IRC §871(a)(2), reported on lines 16 through 18. Gains on US real estate are the exception: they are taxed as effectively connected and go on Schedule D (Form 1040).
Most Schedule NEC tax is already paid by the time you file. A broker or payer holding your Form W-8BEN withholds at 30% or the treaty rate and reports it on Form 1042-S, which you credit on line 25g. Our W-8BEN vs W-9 guide covers the form that sets that withholding rate. If withholding was correct and you have no other filing trigger, you do not file at all; if it was too high, Form 1040-NR is how you get the difference back.
Schedule OI (Other Information) is required with every Form 1040-NR. It asks your citizenship and tax residence (items A and B), your green card and US citizenship history (C and D), your visa type on December 31 and any change of status (E and F), every date you entered and left the United States in 2025 (G), your day counts for 2023, 2024, and 2025 (H), prior US returns (I), and whether you received $250,000 or more of compensation (K). Item L claims treaty exemptions: country, treaty article, months claimed in prior years, and the exempt amount, which totals into line 1k. Item M records the IRC §871(d) election to treat US rental income as effectively connected, which lets a foreign landlord deduct expenses instead of paying 30% of gross rent.
Schedule A (Form 1040-NR) is shorter than the resident version. Line 1a is state and local income taxes, capped on line 1b at $40,000 ($20,000 married filing separately) and reduced once income passes $500,000. Lines 2 through 5 are gifts to US charities, line 6 is casualty and theft losses from a federally declared disaster, and line 7 holds a short list of other deductions. There is no mortgage interest line and no medical expense line. The schedule exists because a nonresident cannot fall back on the standard deduction, and for most nonresidents the honest answer on line 12 is a small number or zero.
A single-member LLC owned by a nonresident is disregarded for income tax, so its profit is the owner's profit, and Form 1040-NR enters the picture only when that profit is effectively connected income. Selling to US customers from abroad does not create a US trade or business by itself; an office, warehouse, or employees in the United States, or a dependent agent who habitually closes contracts for you there, usually does. The full non-resident setup, from state choice to banking, is in our US LLC for non-residents guide.
Building Jupid, we talk with non-resident founders whose Wyoming or Delaware LLC is the only US thing they own, and the 1040-NR question usually arrives late: after a US hire or a US showroom quietly turned the LLC's profit into effectively connected income.
Once it does, five things follow:
Choosing where to form the LLC changes the state side of this, not the federal 1040-NR: the best state to form an LLC tool compares filing and annual fees.
Joaquín, who is single, lives in Buenos Aires and owns 100% of a Florida LLC that runs a Miami showroom with one US employee, which gives him a US trade or business. In 2025 the LLC netted $150,000 on Schedule C. He also holds US stocks in a brokerage account that paid $4,000 of dividends; Argentina has no income tax treaty with the United States, so the broker withheld 30%, or $1,200, and reported it on Form 1042-S. He spent 45 days in the United States in 2025, 60 in 2024, and 30 in 2023: 45 + 20 + 5 = 70 weighted days, far below 183, so he is a nonresident with no wages and a June 15, 2026 due date. He paid $20,000 of estimated tax during the year.
| Form 1040-NR line | Item | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Schedule C profit through Schedule 1 | $150,000 |
| 9 / 11a | Total effectively connected income / AGI | $150,000 |
| 12 | Itemized deductions (Florida has no state income tax; no US charitable gifts) | $0 |
| 13a | Qualified business income deduction (20% × $150,000) | $30,000 |
| 15 | Taxable income | $120,000 |
| 16 | Tax: $120,000 × 24% − $7,153 (2025 worksheet, single) | $21,647 |
| 23a | Schedule NEC tax: $4,000 × 30% | $1,200 |
| 23b | Self-employment tax (no totalization agreement with Argentina) | $0 |
| 24 | Total tax | $22,847 |
| 25g | Withheld on Form 1042-S | $1,200 |
| 26 | Estimated tax payments | $20,000 |
| 37 | Amount owed by June 15, 2026 | $1,647 |
Two lines show how a nonresident's return differs from a resident's. Line 12 has no $15,750 standard deduction to fall back on, so every dollar of profit above the QBI deduction is taxed. Line 23b, on the other hand, is empty: on a resident's Form 1040 the same $150,000 of Schedule C profit would carry about $21,194 of self-employment tax (15.3% of 92.35% of $150,000). A founder living in a country that has a totalization agreement with the United States, such as Brazil or Germany, has to check which social security system covers them before assuming the same result.
Most international students are nonresident aliens for their first five calendar years in the United States because their days do not count toward the substantial presence test. That has three consequences. Every student who excludes days files Form 8843, even with no income. Wages from on-campus work, practical training, or economic hardship employment are taxable on Form 1040-NR, line 1a, but Pub. 519 says no social security or Medicare tax is withheld from that pay while the student is a nonresident. And treaty exemptions for students, which vary by country, are claimed on Schedule OI, item L, and line 1k.
Ananya, a student from India on an F-1 visa, earned $12,000 from an on-campus job in 2025, and her employer withheld $600 of federal income tax. Because Article 21(2) of the US–India treaty lets students take the standard deduction, her $15,750 deduction exceeds her wages and her taxable income is $0. She is technically excused from filing, since she is single with gross income under $15,750, but she files Form 1040-NR anyway, with Form 8843 attached, to get the $600 back.
A dual-status year is a year in which you change from nonresident to resident or back, usually the year you arrive on a work visa or the year you leave. Your status on December 31 decides the return. If you were a resident at year-end, you file Form 1040 marked "Dual-Status Return" with a Form 1040-NR attached as the statement for the nonresident months. If you were a nonresident at year-end, the roles reverse: Form 1040-NR is the return and Form 1040 is the statement.
The restrictions are strict. A dual-status filer cannot take the standard deduction even for the resident part of the year, cannot use head of household rates, cannot file jointly unless they elect full-year residency with a US spouse, cannot claim the earned income credit or education credits, and cannot e-file the 2025 return. Pub. 519, chapter 6, has the worksheets.
Form 1040-NR can be e-filed through commercial software, and paid preparers must generally e-file it. Two situations force paper: a dual-status return, and a return filed with a Form W-7 for a new ITIN, because a return using an ITIN cannot be e-filed in the calendar year the ITIN is assigned. The W-7 instructions say to allow 7 weeks for the ITIN, or 9 to 11 weeks if you apply between January 15 and April 30 or from overseas.
Paper returns for individuals go to the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Austin, TX 73301-0215, USA, or to Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 1303, Charlotte, NC 28201-1303, USA when you enclose a payment. Attach Forms W-2, 1042-S, SSA-1042-S, RRB-1042-S, and 8288-A to page 1, plus Form 1099-R if tax was withheld. A return sent with a Form W-7 goes elsewhere: mail the whole package to Internal Revenue Service, ITIN Operation, P.O. Box 149342, Austin, TX 78714-9342, and not to the Form 1040-NR address (Form W-7 instructions).
Form 1040-NR depends on numbers most non-resident founders reconstruct in May: which payments came from US customers, what the US employee and showroom cost, and what the owner put in or took out. Jupid is an AI accountant in WhatsApp and iMessage that connects to your LLC's bank account and categorizes every transaction automatically at 95.9% accuracy, so Schedule C profit is ready when the June 15 deadline arrives. Ask in chat "what did the LLC net through September?" and the answer comes from the live ledger in seconds. Jupid does not prepare or file Form 1040-NR. Try Jupid
If you use Claude, ChatGPT, or another AI agent to prepare Form 1040-NR, our open-source skill gives it the rules from this guide. It counts your days with the substantial presence formula and stops if the year turns out to be dual-status, decides whether you had a U.S. trade or business, and sorts each item into page 1 income, Schedule NEC at 30% or your treaty rate, or treaty-exempt income on Schedule OI. It checks whether you need Form 8843 or 8833, applies the April 15 or June 15 deadline, and fills in every line. Review the draft before you file.
→ jupid-tax/jupid-skills on GitHub – forms/form-1040-nr/SKILL.md
For Claude Code, clone the repo and run cp -r jupid-skills/forms/form-1040-nr ~/.claude/skills/. For the Anthropic SDK, load SKILL.md into the system prompt and the references/ files on demand. For browser-automation runtimes, filing.md covers the e-file or paper-file workflow.
This guide is for general educational purposes and does not constitute tax, legal, or immigration advice. It describes the 2025 Form 1040-NR, its schedules, and Pub. 519 as posted on irs.gov when last reviewed on October 6, 2026. Whether your activity is a US trade or business, how a specific treaty applies, and dual-status years are fact-specific questions; consult a qualified cross-border tax professional before relying on any figure here.
CEO & Co-Founder
Fintech CEO with 10+ years building accounting and financial technology products. Previously co-founded and scaled an AI-powered accounting platform to $30M revenue and 100K+ business users, achieving 30,000 customers per accountant through automation — recognized by CNBC as a top fintech company. Holds a Master's in Management Information Systems. At Jupid, he leads the development of AI-native bookkeeping, tax, and compliance tools designed for freelancers and small business owners.
NC estimated tax payments 2026: NC-40 due dates, the $1,000 trigger, a 90%/100% safe harbor with no 110% tier, the 3.99% rate, and 7% interest.
Missouri estimated tax payments 2026: MO-1040ES due dates, the $100 trigger, a 90%/100% safe harbor with no 110% tier, 4.7% top rate, capital gains subtraction.
Massachusetts estimated taxes 2026: Form 1-ES due dates, the $400 trigger, the 80%/100% safe harbor with no 110% tier, 5% and 8.5% rates, the $1,107,750 surtax.
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