My U.S.-business income is fully treaty-exempt. Do I still have to file Form 1040-NR?
I am a resident of the Netherlands and earned about $54,000 through work that my adviser says falls under treaty protection, so the expected U.S. tax is zero. I was still engaged in activity that could be viewed as a U.S. trade or business, which is where the confusion starts. I do not want to file a return that is unnecessary, but I also do not want to skip one the IRS expected.
A second complication is that my gross U.S. income was modest and almost all of it should wash out under the treaty position. If the treaty wipes out the tax, does that also wipe out the filing requirement, or is Form 1040-NR still supposed to be filed with the treaty explanation?
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