【Updated 2025.4】The 2025 tax filing season will end on April 15, so if you haven’t finished yet, it’s time to hurry up. Once you have the 1099-MISC and 1099-INT forms sent by your bank, together with your W-2, you can start filing. If you received more than $5,000 from third parties, you may also receive a 1099-K. If you are not familiar with tax filing, we recommend skimming this article, especially the “must-read” section for 2025 taxes at the beginning.

Also, if you owe taxes, paying by credit card can be a very convenient way to meet a card’s welcome bonus spending requirement. Fees can be as low as about 1.8%. Based on testing, tax payments made by credit card through third-party websites are coded as purchase transactions and count toward minimum spending.

Note: This article is based on personal experience and general tax-filing logic, and does not constitute tax advice of any kind. If you have questions, please consult a qualified tax professional. This is a roundup post with many internal and external links; just use the parts you need.

2025 Tax Filing Must-Read

Key points

In the US, filing a tax return is absolutely one of the biggest annual tasks. No matter what your status is in the US or how much income you have, taxes are something you need to think about. Below are 9 tax facts you must know for 2024 (tax year 2023):

  1. Tax filing window: January 27, 2025 – April 15, 2025 (for the vast majority of states); the extension deadline is October 15, 2022
  2. Do you need to file?: If you had US income in 2024 (including a 2023 tax refund), you need to consider filing, whether the income was active (wages, business) or passive (investments, interest, benefits, unemployment compensation). US citizens must report worldwide income, regardless of whether they are currently in the US.
  3. Why file taxes?: Some income earned in the US in 2024 may have had taxes withheld upfront. Filing is how you claim back any overpayment. On the other hand, if tax was not paid or too little was withheld, you may owe more. In short, filing a return is how you reconcile your income with the taxes you paid—more back if you overpaid, more due if you underpaid.
  4. Filing status matters: Your status directly determines which forms you use, what tax benefits or deductions you can claim, and what tax rates apply.
  5. What taxes are there?: In general, you file federal tax first and then state tax, which means your income is basically taxed twice.
  6. How do you file?: You can fill out paper forms and mail them, use software to e-file, or ask volunteers or a professional accountant to help. If you owe additional tax, you will need to provide a payment account or check; if you are due a refund, the money will be sent to the account you entered.
  7. Where do you file?: Federal tax goes to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), and state tax goes to your own state’s tax agency address.
  8. What if you made a mistake?: You can mail in an amended form. If you do not catch it, the IRS will send you a letter. You can still pay any penalty and make corrections afterward.
  9. What happens if you do not file?: If the IRS finds that you should have filed but did not, it can come after you for back taxes and penalties, and it may also review your returns from recent years.

This year the IRS offers quite a few free filing options. Check whether your income and filing status qualify, so you do not waste money buying tax software unnecessarily.

Hopefully the tax concepts above are not too heavy on jargon, and everyone can understand the basics of how tax filing works. Next, we will walk through the general process step by step.

2025 (tax year 2024) vs. 2024 (tax year 2023)

Step 1: Do I need to file taxes?

One important thing to note: “need to file taxes” here means you need to consider whether filing applies to you, not necessarily that you will definitely end up mailing in a tax return. In some cases, if your income is low enough, you may not actually need to submit a return, but that depends on your filing status, which we will analyze in more detail in the next step.

You need to file

As mentioned earlier, if you have income in the US, you need to think about filing taxes. There are many types of income, and in most cases each common type corresponds to a tax form sent to you by the payer. For example:

  • W-2 wage income
  • 1042-S wages and miscellaneous income
  • 1099-INT: interest income
  • 1099-G: government income, such as a tax refund
  • 1099-MISC: miscellaneous income, such as tax forms generated by credit card referral bonuses
  • 1099-DIV: dividend income
  • 1099-B: stock gains
  • 1099-R: retirement account distributions
  • 1099-K: third-party payment platform transaction records (detailed analysis)

W-2 and 1042-S forms related to wages are sent by your employer or school. 1099-INT for interest and 1099-MISC for credit card referrals are generally sent by your bank. Form 1099-G for tax refunds is sent by the government. Stock-related forms such as 1099-B and 1099-DIV can usually be downloaded from the relevant platform or app and are rarely mailed. If you have not received your tax forms yet but know you had this kind of income, it is best to wait a bit, since these forms must be delivered to you by January 31 / February 18, 2021. If you received any of the tax forms listed above, then you definitely need to file. For detailed explanations and examples of these forms, see:

In fact, “income” here is defined very broadly. For example: winning an online giveaway; helping someone with a task and receiving cash compensation; earning rewards for uploading articles or photos; getting referral rewards for inviting friends to sign up for websites; receiving rental income from leasing out a home; and so on. In most cases, though, these are temporary, irregular, and small in amount, so leaving them out usually is not a big deal. But if the amounts are large and recurring, the risk of problems if discovered is much higher, so it is better to file properly.

On the other hand, some income does not need to be reported, such as the occasional garage sale or selling used items on eBay. For credit card enthusiasts, credit card welcome bonuses, cashback from spending, and miles earned from spending generally do not need to be reported on your taxes.

Transfers through third-party payment methods may generate a 1099-K, but it is only a record. Whether you actually need to report it depends on the source of the transactions that produced your 1099-K.

If you have an SSN, then your SSN is your personal taxpayer ID. If you do not have an SSN but do have the types of income described above, you will need to apply for an individual taxpayer identification number.

If you do need to file taxes, please jump to Step 2 and keep reading.

No need to file

If you have no income of any kind, congratulations—you generally do not need to file a tax return. However, for F1 students, people working on OPT, and J1 visiting scholars or trainees, you still need to submit Form 8834 even if you had no income at all. This form is very simple: just fill it out yourself and mail it to the IRS address.

Step 2: Choose How to File

If your tax situation is relatively simple, we recommend using a free tax filing service directly.

Get Help from Someone Else

In the U.S., professional tax preparers can help you handle tax issues. If your return is very complex—especially if it involves company equity or personal business activities—we recommend working with a professional tax specialist. Also, if your immigration status became complicated due to graduation, multiple status changes, or moving across states, it may be better to work with a professional Chinese-speaking accountant. Many general U.S. accountants are not very familiar with these situations. However, these specialists are not cheap and often charge several thousand dollars.
If you want free tax filing help, students can usually ask at school. During tax season, there are often volunteers with finance backgrounds available. If you are a U.S. resident, you can also look for your local VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program. This program generally provides free tax help to people earning $ 56,000 or less, people with disabilities, and taxpayers with limited English proficiency. IRS-certified volunteers provide free basic income tax return preparation and file electronically. A friend of mine used to volunteer with VITA, and most of the people seeking help were local low-income residents and seniors. The process mainly involves answering questions in the software, and the tax return is generated once everything is entered.

If you are age 60 or older, you can also use Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE). VITA and TCE only support certain types of tax returns, so it is best to check in advance whether they can meet your needs.

Use Tax Software

Using software to file taxes is now a very popular and convenient option. In general, tax software costs only a few dozen dollars, and more complex cases may cost a few hundred dollars. That is more than enough for most people. If you want to avoid the hassle of reading the tax form instructions yourself, this is a great option. But the first question you need to answer is: can you actually use software to file your taxes? In general, tax software has limitations. Different immigration or tax statuses work with different software, and some statuses cannot use tax software at all.

So before buying any software, it is best to roughly determine your status first so you do not waste money.

Once you have determined your status, you can choose from the following software:

If you have already returned to China and still need to file taxes on last year’s income, TaxAct is recommended. It generates Form 1040NR and 1040NREZ and completes electronic filing, so there is no need to mail the return.

For a comparison of different software options, see:

One important note: some software supports e-file, while others require you to print and mail the forms yourself, so do not mix them up.

Do It Yourself

For students and regular employees, filing your own taxes is actually fairly simple. If your case does not involve status changes, changes in income structure, or moving across states, I highly recommend following the IRS instructions step by step. It is not that difficult. In Step 3 below, we will explain the DIY tax filing process in more detail.

Step 3: File Your Taxes Yourself

Tax Status

Different statuses use different forms and qualify for different benefits, so you must determine this first. Tax status mainly falls into the following categories:

  • U.S. Citizen and U.S. National
  • Resident Alien (RA)
  • Non-Resident Alien (NRA)
  • Dual-Status Alien, meaning you had both RA and NRA status during the same tax year
  • Joint File for married filers

If you are not sure, you can read the following articles for a more detailed analysis. Dual-status is the most complicated and usually happens after being in the U.S. for more than 5 years, after graduation when starting work, or around marriage and children.

A single status usually is not a big problem. If you have multiple statuses, you need to choose the most suitable one for filing.

Choose the Right Form

First, here is some reassurance: if you can confirm your status and choose the correct form, you are already halfway done. The rest is mostly mechanical form-filling based on the instructions. The forms for different statuses are as follows:

Note that the difference between EZ and non-EZ is that EZ is a simplified version. You can download the EZ version first, then check the “Can I Use Form 1040NR-EZ?” checklist on the left side of the first page of the instructions. Below are some important requirements. If you do not meet any one of the following, you must use Form 1040NR instead:

  • You cannot be claimed as a dependent on another person’s tax return; and
  • Your income must come entirely from wages, tips, state and local income tax refunds, scholarships, fellowships, tax-exempt interest, and stock dividends; and
  • Your taxable income must be less than $100,000; and
  • Other than state and local income taxes, you cannot claim any Tax Deduction or Tax Credit. Common ones you might otherwise qualify for include the moving expense deduction, the Health Saving Account (HSA) deduction, the IRA (retirement account) deduction, and casualty and theft loss deductions.

The forms above are all for Federal Tax. If you also need to file state taxes, you will need to prepare the state tax forms as well. If you lived in two states during the year, you will need to file according to each state’s rules; we will not go into that here. In addition, F1 students also need to prepare Form 8843.

If your situation involves a status change such as F1 or H1B, you can review the following example to understand which tax forms are needed:

Documents to Prepare

In general, you should receive tax forms from the payer of the income. These forms will include your name, address, SSN, or tax ID number.

  • W-2: wage income
  • 1042-S: wages and miscellaneous income
  • 1099-INT: interest income
  • 1099-G: government payments, such as tax refunds
  • 1099-MISC: miscellaneous income, such as tax forms generated by credit card referral bonuses
  • 1099-DIV: dividend income
  • 1099-B: short-term stock gains
  • 1099-R: pension withdrawals

Also, have electronic copies of the forms you need to fill out, along with the official filing instructions.

Filling Out the Tax Return

Now it is finally time to start filling out the forms. You can follow the instructions step by step, or refer to our guides below. For payment or refund method, we recommend entering your checking account information, since direct ACH transfer is much more convenient.

State taxes vary by state, but in general they are fairly easy to complete if you follow the instructions.

Supporting Documents and Mailing

Besides the forms themselves, the tax forms listed above usually include a copy intended for the IRS; detach it and attach it to your return. Forms such as 1099-B and 1099-DIV should also be printed and attached.

If your filing package is small, you can simply buy an envelope and stamp at the post office and mail it out. Personally, I recommend using a USPS Priority or similar service so you have tracking and more peace of mind. For mailing addresses, see the link below:

After You File

How to Check Your Filing Status

No matter which method you used, you have finally completed the difficult task of filing taxes. Next comes waiting for your refund. You can check your filing status online:

What If You Made a Mistake?

If you discover an error after mailing your return, you can correct it by mailing a 1040x series form. You can amend tax returns from the past 3 years.

What If the IRS Contacts You?

If there is a problem with your filing, the IRS will send you a letter asking you to correct it, provide documentation, or pay a penalty. Just follow the instructions in the letter.

One very important thing to remember: the IRS will not contact you by phone!!! Anyone calling you is a scammer.

Paying Taxes With a Credit Card

If you are trying to meet a welcome bonus, you can consider paying your taxes with a credit card. There will of course be processing fees, so weigh the tradeoff carefully.

About Filing an Extension

In 2025, you need to submit your extension request by October 15. Unless you have special circumstances, it is generally better to file on time.

About State Taxes

The filing guides mentioned above are all for federal taxes. In general, you should complete your federal return first before starting your state return, because some state tax fields require figures from your federal forms. State tax forms are usually simpler, and many states also offer online filing systems. Keep the following points in mind:

  • State tax mailing address: If you plan to mail your state tax return, be sure to check the mailing address on that state’s tax website. State and federal tax mailing addresses are different.
  • Deadline: In general, state tax deadlines are the same as the federal deadline. However, under special circumstances, such as during the pandemic, states may set their own filing deadlines.
  • State tax refunds: These are generally processed separately.

Collected Tax Filing Experiences

If you have relevant experience or good articles to share, feel free to leave a comment and I can add them to this post. Thank you.

Appendix: Some 2019/2020 Tax Filing DPs

Everyone’s tax situation is different. These DPs are for reference only. For specific filing details, please consult your tax attorney.

  • DP1: (2019) J-1 third-year tax filing. Employer did not apply the tax exemption, so the full amount was claimed back on my own. H/T: nate_6731
Returned to China. Had half a year of third-year wages (this portion of income already exceeded 12000), an AE refer 1099-MISC over 600, quite a few bank 1099-int forms, and also withdrew 4-5K from the Texas TRS retirement system. About 3K in federal tax was withheld from wages and retirement withdrawals. Filed Form 1040 with two 1040 S1 attachments (one for misc income, one for Zhao Ziyang’s Article 19), and attached 8833 explaining that this was my third year on J-1 and that I had returned to China, triggering dual-country taxpayer status, hoping for a full federal tax exemption (not using the 5000 route). The filing was successful and I received the full refund by ACH to my checking account.
  • DP2: (2020) In China, NRA, remote electronic filing (E-file), no need to mail anything to the IRS, and acceptance was very fast. H/T: illusionwing
Used TaxAct (the only option for NRA e-filing) to successfully file. Paid about $30+ in service fees, and TopCashBack had 15% cashback, so it was mainly for convenience. E-filed on January 27, 2020, and the IRS accepted it by February 1.