Synopsis "U.S. Taxes for Korean Nationals in America"
You have just arrived in the United States on a student, work, or investor visa, or your green card was approved. When does the IRS start counting, and what happens to everything you left in Korea? Your immigration status is not your tax status. The day the two diverge is the day your Korean bank accounts, salary, apartment, funds, and pension enter the U.S. tax system, and most newcomers do not find out until a year or two later. Written by a practicing Los Angeles CPA who prepares first-year returns for Korean nationals every tax season, this plain-English guide follows four composite clients (an F-1 doctoral student, a Samsung L-1 assignee, an E-2 dry-cleaner owner, and an H-1B engineer who becomes a green card holder) through: - Resident or nonresident: the 183-day test, the five exempt years for students, and the first-year dual-status return- The Korea-U.S. tax treaty: the student and teacher exemptions, reduced withholding on dividends and interest, the social security article, and the saving clause that takes most of it away- F-1 and J-1: scholarships, the FICA exemption and how to get it refunded, OPT, and the year the clock runs out- H-1B, L-1, O-1: the arrival-year elections, Korean-paid salary, relocation payments, 401(k) decisions- E-2 and business owners: entity choice, paying yourself, why your own money is not a gift, and the Form 5472 that Korean-owned corporations must file- FBAR and Form 8938 for the housing subscription account, IRP, brokerage, and insurance you left behind- Korean income, the foreign tax credit, and the one-home capital gains exemption you lose by leaving- The PFIC trap in every Korean fund and ETF, and jeonse deposits- Korean National Pension, severance pay, and U.S. Social Security under the 2001 totalization agreement- Gifts from parents, the Korean gift tax they trigger, and the eight-year green card rule>Includes a status-by-status filing matrix, a first-year checklist with the documents to bring from Korea, and a Korean-English glossary. Facts verified against the treaty text, IRS, FinCEN, SSA, and Korean National Tax Service sources as of September 2026. Companion to Receiving an Inheritance from Korea. General information, not individual tax advice.
