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What, When, and Where To File — Nonresident Aliens: U.S. Taxes for Noncitizens (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “What, When, and Where To File — Nonresident Aliens” within u.s. taxes for noncitizens. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 519 (2025), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

What return you must file, as well as when and where you file that return, depends on your status at the end of the tax year as a resident or a nonresident alien.

What, When, and Where To File — Nonresident Aliens

Nonresident aliens who are required to file an income tax return should use Form 1040-NR.

If you are any of the following, you must file a return.

  1. A nonresident alien individual engaged or considered to be engaged in a trade or business in the United States during 2025. (But see Exceptions, later.)

    You must file even if:

    1. Your income did not come from a trade or business conducted in the United States,

    2. You have no income from U.S. sources, or

    3. Your income is exempt from income tax.

  2. A nonresident alien individual not engaged in a trade or business in the United States with U.S. income on which the tax liability was not satisfied by the withholding of tax at the source.

  3. A representative or agent responsible for filing the return of an individual described in (1) or (2).

  4. A fiduciary for a nonresident alien estate or trust.

You must also file if you want to:

  • Claim a refund of overwithheld or overpaid tax, or

  • Claim the benefit of any deductions or credits. For example, if you have no U.S. business activities but have income from real property that you choose to treat as effectively connected income (discussed in chapter 4), you must timely file a true and accurate return to take any allowable deductions against that income. For information on what is timely, see When to file for deductions and credits under When To File, later.

Exceptions.

You do not need to file Form 1040-NR if you meet any of the following conditions.

Caution:

The exception that previously allowed nonresident aliens whose only U.S. trade or business was the performance of personal services and whose wage income did not exceed the personal exemption amount to not file a Form 1040-NR is no longer available. You must meet (1), (2), or (3) below to be exempt from filing a 2025 Form 1040-NR.

  1. You were a nonresident alien student, teacher, or trainee who was temporarily present in the United States under an “F,” “J,” “M,” or “Q” visa, and you have no income that is subject to tax, such as wages, tips, scholarship and fellowship grants, dividends, etc.

  2. You were a student or business apprentice who was eligible for the benefits of Article 21(2) of the United States-India Income Tax Treaty, you are single or a qualifying surviving spouse, and your gross income for 2025 was less than or equal to $15,000 if single ($30,000 if a qualifying surviving spouse).

  3. You were a partner in a U.S. partnership that was not engaged in a trade or business in the United States during 2025 and your Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) includes only income from U.S. sources that is not effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business.

Caution:

Even if you have left the United States and filed a Form 1040-C on departure, you must still file an annual U.S. income tax return. If you are married and both you and your spouse are required to file, you must each file a separate return.

Foreign‐owned domestic disregarded entities (DEs).

If a foreign person wholly owns a domestic DE, the domestic DE is treated as a domestic corporation separate from its owner (the foreign person) for the limited purposes of the requirements under section 6038A that apply to 25% foreign‐owned domestic corporations. The foreign-owned domestic DE must file a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached by the due date (including extensions) of the return. The only information required to be completed on Form 1120 is the name and address of the foreign-owned domestic DE and items B and E in the first part. A foreign-owned domestic DE may have had a reporting requirement before 2017 if it had a U.S. trade or business or other activity that otherwise required reporting. See the Instructions for Form 5472 for additional information and coordination with Form 5472 filing by the domestic DE. Also note that because the domestic DE is generally a transparent entity, the foreign person will include (or continue to include) on Form 1040-NR any of the domestic DE’s tax items that are subject to reporting. A DE (foreign or domestic) may also have a separate reporting requirement related to employment or excise taxes. See Regulations sections 301.7701-2(c)(2)(iv) and (v).

When To File

If you are an employee and you receive wages subject to U.S. income tax withholding, you will generally file by the 15th day of the 4th month after your tax year ends. For the 2025 calendar year, file your return by April 15, 2026.

If you are not an employee who receives wages subject to U.S. income tax withholding, you must file by the 15th day of the 6th month after your tax year ends. For the 2025 calendar year, file your return by June 15, 2026.

Extensions of time to file.

If you cannot file your return by the due date, file Form 4868 or use one of the electronic filing options explained in the instructions for Form 4868. For the 2025 calendar year, this will extend the due date to October 15, 2026. If your regular due date is June 15, 2026, this will extend the due date to December 15, 2026. You must file the extension by the regular due date of your return.

Caution:

An automatic 6-month extension to file does not extend the time to pay your tax. If you do not pay your tax by the original due date of your return, you will owe interest on the unpaid tax and may owe penalties. See Form 4868.

When to file for deductions and credits.

To get the benefit of any allowable deductions or credits, you must timely file a true and accurate return. For this purpose, a return is timely if it is filed within 16 months of the due date just discussed. However, if you did not file a 2024 tax return and 2025 is not the first year for which you are required to file one, your 2025 return is timely for this purpose if it is filed by the earlier of:

  • The date that is 16 months after the due date for filing your 2025 return, or

  • The date the IRS notifies you that your 2025 return has not been filed and that you cannot claim certain deductions and credits.

The allowance of the following credits is not affected by this time requirement.

  • Credit for withheld taxes.

  • Credit for excise tax on certain uses of gasoline and special fuels.

  • Credit for tax paid by a mutual fund (or other RIC) or a REIT on undistributed long-term capital gains.

Protective return.

If your activities in the United States were limited and you do not believe that you had any gross income effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business during the year, you can file a protective return (Form 1040-NR) by the deadline explained above. By filing a protective return, you protect your right to receive the benefit of deductions and credits in the event it is later determined that some or all of your income is effectively connected. You are not required to report any effectively connected income or any deductions on the protective return, but you must give the reason the return is being filed.

If you believe some of your activities resulted in effectively connected income, file your return reporting that income and related deductions by the regular due date. To protect your right to claim deductions or credits resulting from other activities, attach a statement to that return explaining that you wish to protect your right to claim deductions and credits if it is later determined that the other activities produced effectively connected income.

You can follow the same procedure if you believe you have no U.S. tax liability because of a U.S. tax treaty. Be sure to also complete item L on Schedule OI (Form 1040-NR).

Waiver of filing deadline.

The IRS may waive the filing deadline if you establish that, based on the facts and circumstances, you acted reasonably and in good faith in failing to file a U.S. income tax return (including a protective return) and you cooperate with the IRS in determining your U.S. income tax liability for the tax year for which you did not file a return.

Where To File

For information on where to file Form 1040-NR, see the Instructions for Form 1040-NR.

Aliens from the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Report all income from U.S. sources, as well as income from other sources, on your return. For information on filing U.S. Virgin Islands returns, contact the U.S. Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue.

If you are a bona fide resident of the U.S. Virgin Islands during your entire tax year and work temporarily in the United States, you must pay your income taxes to the U.S. Virgin Islands and file your income tax returns at the following address.

Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue
6115 Estate Smith Bay
Suite 225
St. Thomas, VI 00802

Chapter 8 discusses withholding from U.S. wages of residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Aliens from Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

If you are a bona fide resident of Guam or the CNMI during your entire tax year, you must file your return with, and pay any tax due to, Guam or the CNMI. Report all income, including income from U.S. sources, on your return. It is not necessary to file a separate U.S. income tax return.

Bona fide residents of Guam should file their Guam returns at the following address.

Department of Revenue and Taxation
Government of Guam
P.O. Box 23607
Barrigada, GU 96921

Bona fide residents of the CNMI should file their CNMI income tax returns at the following address.

Saipan Central Office
Division of Revenue and Taxation
P.O. Box 5234 CHRB
Saipan, MP 96950

If you are not a bona fide resident of Guam or the CNMI, see Pub. 570 for information on where to file your return.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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