F1/OPT-H1B 报税身份 Nonresidential Alien or Dual-Status Alien

My situation:
01/01/2005-09/30/2005 F1 & OPT (FICA has been withheld by a company)
10/01/2005-present H1-B

Below I will describe my understanding about my 2005 tax status:

(1) Although 2005 is my 6th calendar year in U.S., I was an “exempt individual” for the F1 & OPT period, i.e. from 01/01/2005 to 9/30/2005. According to Article 20 (c) of the U.S. – China Tax Treaty (Publication 519, Page 59) which states “the benefits provided under this Article shall extend only for such period of time as is reasonably necessary to complete the education or training”, my school already exempted $5000 from tax on income earned during my F1 status.

(2) Since I was an “exempt individual” before 9/30/2005, I was not qualified for 183-day-rule Substantial-Presence-Test for 2005 and hence Residential Alien for tax purpose for 2005. (Publication 519, Page 4)

(3) I can be treated as Nonresidential Alien for the entire year of 2005.

(4) I can also be treated as Dual-Status Alien for 2005. To meet First-Year Choice, I should request an extension of time for filing my 2005 -1040 form until 6/12/06 when I have met the substantial-presence-test for 2006. (Publication 519, Page 9). Dual-Status Alien身份报税的困难在于区分10/01/2005以前和以后的各项reduction, bank interest, exemption, credit计算.

(5) In either case, I should be refund F.I.C.A. that has been withheld during OPT status – before 9/30/05.

我对自己报税身份的定位准确吗？对于选择Nonresidential Alien or Dual-status Alien身份, 大家有何建议？

所有跟帖： 

• F1第六年起就不是exempt individual啦, 所以 -stp- ♂ (102 bytes) () 03/16/2006 postreply 13:36:39

• 多谢回帖，问题是我已经被学校当成exempt individual... -144021- ♂ (437 bytes) () 03/16/2006 postreply 14:22:12

• I just called IRA. IRA said that -144021- ♂ (208 bytes) () 03/16/2006 postreply 15:31:38

• RA和TREATY不矛盾, ARTICLE 20的SAVING CLAUSE -stp- ♂ (142 bytes) () 03/16/2006 postreply 16:43:34

• You are right. I messed up these two terms. -144021- ♂ (699 bytes) () 03/16/2006 postreply 19:45:30