I saw [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/comments/19czq81/comment/kj4zzpq/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) here where /u/sendaiBen admitted to never filing US taxes.
perhaps JapanFinance is not the place for this question but I feel someone must know the answer. Can a
1. UK citizen
2. resident in Japan
3. who is not a US person
voluntarily file a US tax return?
If so, would they become a US person upon filing? Would they be eligible for FEIE or FTC?
asking for a final boss
by univworker
4 comments
He never filed a US tax return because he’s not an American. I’ve never filed a tax return in Brazil etc.
But why would you file a US tax return if you are not a US citizen nor resident and don’t have any taxable income in the US?
Or do you have taxable income from the US? I really don’t understand your point
>If so, would they become a US person upon filing? Would they be eligible for FEIE or FTC?
a) What do you mean by US person in this context?
b) Even assuming that they *could*. what benefit would there be for a non-resident non-tax-resident to file a tax return when they would not be eligible for any sort of rebate (or owed tax) due to not having any income taxable in the US?
(If taxes were witheld in the US for some reason, then yes, they could presumably file to claim back anything erroneously witheld).
Here is my understanding…
The person you described is a nonresident alien. They are not a US person.
The [IRS webpage for nonresident aliens](https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/taxation-of-nonresident-aliens) lists criteria for “who must file”. It does not say who cannot file, and I doubt there would be any restriction. It would just result in a tax return filing which shows zero taxable income and zero tax.
Non-resident aliens file using the [1040-NR](https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1040-nr) tax return form. This form is for nonresident aliens (i.e., non US persons) and therefore filing this form would not cause them to become a US person.
Edit: Here is the [IRS webpage on Classification of Taxpayers for U.S. Tax Purposes](https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/classification-of-taxpayers-for-us-tax-purposes) and the related [Determining an Individual’s Tax Residency Status](https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/determining-an-individuals-tax-residency-status). Together, these pages say that the person you described would only become a US person if they became a citizen or a resident, where resident is defined as meeting the green card test or the substantial presence test. There are some elections such as tax treaty or closer ties to another country that could override these tests.
Now my anarchist side wants to convince the rest of the 7Billion+ population to all file “zero tax” returns, just to see if we can cripple the IRS’s computers. They make us all file for no reason(*) so let’s return the favor!
(*) yes, I know that there’s a percentage of expats who actually still get taxed; but most of us fall within the FEIE/FTC so it’s the same as pointless.