Dear friends,

I am in Optional Practice Training (OPT) period and am working with one US company. Could you plese let me know what kind of taxes do i have to pay while working under OPT cause i think my company is deducting every kind of tax from my salary. And i heard that while you work in OPT  lots of your taxese will be exempted.

I would appreciate your help.. Please

Your company is doing the right thing. If you leave country after OPT , you can ask for rufund other than state tax and federal tax withheld. You have to file tax for 2007 earning in 2008 before April 15. You can file as a residence.

 

I also came across the same situation last year when I started working under OPT status. I did some research on the IRS site as to what kind of taxes I had to pay. What I found was that, on OPT, you are only liable for state and federal taxes i.e. you dont have to pay Social Security and Medicare.  Check the following link
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=106287,00.html
There is more info available on the website. You may have to spend some time to find it. I took all the supporting documents to my employer and they refunded whatever SS and Medicare they had deducted and also stopped deducting them from my future paychecks.

Hope this helps.

Yes, Paulite is right. Person on OPT is only liable to for state and federal tax withholdings.

But I think (I don't have proof at this time) this applies for only those who has been in the US

for less than 5 years, because after continuous stay of 5 years a person needs to be taxed same as US citizen.

 

Yes, you  don't have to pay Social Security Tax and Medicare Tax. I just discovered that today.

PM

Yes, you  don't have to pay Social Security Tax and Medicare Tax. I just discovered that today.

PM