International Audit Month on May, 2024: TAX INFORMATION FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS?

May, 2024 is International Audit Month 2024. IIA Bahamas Chapter Celebrates May as International Internal Audit ... Audit Awareness Month.pdf

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TAX INFORMATION FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS?

Then all your friends have been cheating the IRS and when caught will pay back the excess refund with penalties and interest.

If you are an F-1 student and in the first 5 calendar years of being in the US, you MUST file a 1040NR or 1040NR-EZ with an 8843. You CANNOT volunteer to file a 1040 as a resident. You are NOT eligible for the American Opportunity Credit (or the Hope or the Lifetime credit) in any way shape or form.

This is one of the reasons that the IRS tells colleges and universities to NOT issue a 1098-T to international students.

It will be pretty simple for the IRS to audit these students. The IRS is going to know who was in the US for less than 5 years.

Does the IRS initiate audits with a phone call?

Does the IRS initiate audits with a phone call?

No, the IRS never initiates contact by phone. They will ONLY initiate contact by snail-mail. Additionally, the IRS never uses "claim" numbers. Everything is filed by your SSN or EIN if it's a business return. This sounds like a fairly common scam.

If anyone calls you claiming to be from the IRS, ask them for your name and SSN. This will stop a scammer cold as they have neither. They will try and say that they can't do that for "security reasons" or some other such BS. Just say, "Fine, send me a letter," and hang up.

If you have an open audit or other claim with the IRS that is being worked, they may call you if you gave them your phone number. However they never initiate an audit contact by phone. Ever. If an IRS agent or employee calls you they will address you by name and if you ask for your SSN or EIN for verification they will give it to you after asking a test question (such as the number of exemptions on your most recent return and the filing status) to verify that they are talking to the taxpayer.

A popular scam a number of years ago was to leave a message on your voice-mail telling you to call a "toll free" number that was actually an international premium-rate call to the Caribbean. Your phone would be charged several hundred dollars for the call and since you dialed the call the phone company would not take it off of your bill. When you called they would establish that they had called the wrong taxpayer and you'd shrug it off until the phone bill came.

Another popular scam is telling you that you are due a refund and asking you for your banking or credit card details so that they can deposit the money. They will also ask for certain personal information "for security reasons" that is then used to drain your bank account, max out your credit cards, or steal your identity.

If you receive a voice-mail message purporting to come from the IRS and leaving a number to call, NEVER call the number that they leave. Call the IRS main number at 1-800-TAX-1040 and hold on the line for a human and ask if they are trying to reach you by phone. If they are, there will be a record of the call and you will be routed to the agent handling your case.

Most of these scammers don't want to talk to you directly so if you have received a number of hang-up calls with caller ID blocked it's a strong indicator that you are being targeted by scammers.

Also, don't trust caller ID completely. A sophisticated scammer with a business trunk and a PBX (there are open-source PBXs that run on PC hardware) can spoof caller ID very easily. I manage one such system and occasionally we'll "punk" someone by calling them and setting the PBX to show "The White House" on the target's caller ID. A channelized trunk line can be had for as little as $300 a month in most major cities and tracing calls back to the source can be difficult as you can "bounce" calls through any phone switch on the planet if you know what you're doing. By the time that the authorities locate the scammer's boiler room the scammers have cleared out leaving little if any evidence behind.

how to become an international CPA?

how to become an international CPA?

The details of these requirements vary according to the state in which you apply for your CPA license, but the main requirements are the same across the country. The minimum education requirement to become a CPA is a four-year undergraduate degree from a recognized, accredited university. The actual number of seminar hours required varies by state, with 150 seminar hours of accounting courses as the standard.

Each state has slightly different rules surrounding the qualifications required to become a CPA and sit for the exam, but the exam is identical is all states. The exam can only be taken within the USA, and is offered several times a year. In order to qualify to take this exam, you must submit the required information to the license board of the state in which you have decided to become qualified in. Requirements vary between states.

Some states require US citizenship or residency to become a CPA, but more than half the states do not. If you have a master's degree from an accredited university, you can waive the experience requirements for the CPA certificate, but must have it for the permit to practice. If you want to add "CPA" to your resume, but do not intend to practice as an accountant, this may be the ideal option.

Only after your application is approved can you register for the exam with a testing center. There are four parts to the Uniform CPA exam; auditing & attestation, financial accounting and reporting, regulation business environment, and concepts. Each of the four sections are graded on a scale and a minimum score of 75 is required to pass.

The CPA testing centers are available up to six days a week in the following months: January, February, April, May, July, August and November. Upon successful completion, you must submit your score report to the appropriate state board to obtain your practice license and become a CPA.

In general, qualified accountants from other countries must submit all the same documentation to the Board of Accountancy for the state in which they want to qualify, and schedule to take the Uniform CPA exam. There are five international accounting designations that have reciprocal agreements in place with the CPA. Accountants with these designations take the four and a half hour International Uniform CPA Qualification exam instead of the Uniform CPA exam to become a CPA.

The program requirements of these institutes have been evaluated and compared with the CPA program and found to be very similar. The organizations are: Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, Instituto Mexicano De Contradores Publicos, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia, and the CPA Australia.

Also on this date Wednesday, May 1, 2024...