Please note that approx. 75% of NRVTAP members will turn out to not be eligible for a property tax refund. The MN Dept. of Revenue is diligent about auditing these returns, so please carefully review the below information before filing a return to claim a refund. We strongly encourage you to make an appointment and review your information with one of our trained volunteers if you believe you qualify.

To be eligible for a MN Property Tax Refund:

1 - You must have been physically present in MN for at least 183 days during 2022. For a single visit, that means you must have arrived on or before July 2nd.

2 - You must have rented/owned/occupied/maintained an abode that was subject to property taxes for some part of 2022. An abode is a legal way of saying a place that has sleeping, cooking, bathing facilities, so dorms do not usually qualify. Some school owned or co-op housing units don’t pay property taxes. If you don’t pay the taxes, you can’t get a refund on them. Generally if you lived in a qualifying situation you should receive a certificate of rent paid (CRP) by Jan. 31. If you did not, ask your landlord for this form, or why it was not provided.

3 - You must not be a dependent - you must have provided over 1/2 of your own support. Most international students are dependents. If you aren’t sure if you would qualify or not, we’ve created the following worksheet that you can use to evaluate if you are a dependent. See IRS Publication 17 for the full definition if you are uncertain.

MN Property Tax Worksheet

If you are eligible for the property tax refund, you must determine your household income. This includes nontaxable income such as: treaty exempt income, scholarships and fellowships, tuition waivers and reductions, fee waivers, and COVID emergency grants. The worksheet also walks you through determining these amounts.

Once you know you are eligible for a refund, and have determined your nontaxable income, you can use the guide to prepare your MN property tax refund return.

MN Property Tax Return Guide

This guide is intended to help you enter income from investment transactions into your return.

Interest: If you earned interest on deposits from a checking or savings account, you likely received a 1099-INT. You also might get this form if you got a bonus for opening an account,or if the IRS was delayed in sending you your refund. If your interest amount was under $10 you might not receive this form, but you should still go through the guide to determine if/how to enter it into your return.

Dividends: If you owned U.S. stocks, mutual funds, or other investments that organization might have paid you a dividend you should receive a 1099-DIV form to report this income. There are special tax rules for dividend income for nonresident aliens, and this guide will help walk you through them.

Capital gains: If you sold a U.S. stock or mutual fund for more money than what you paid for it, you have a capital gain and should receive a 1099-B form. There can be special rules for capital gains for nonresident aliens, and this guide will help walk you through them. Two important notes about this guide. First, although we provide this guide, we cannot answer questions about capital gains at our tax clinic appointments (but you can email us at taxassistance@nrvtap.com). Second, note that sales or exchange of cryptocurrency is also considered gains, but as they are out of scope for our clinic we will not cover how to correctly report them at the clinics or over email.

Investment Transactions Guide

If you have a treaty benefit for wages, but either didn’t get a 1042-S form, or your treaty benefits do not match your 1042-S form, this guide will help you claim your full treaty benefit. The most common situations this occurs are:

You received a W-2 for some wages, a 1042-S for some wages, and your total of W-2 + 1042-S wages is less than your treaty benefit.

- This commonly occurs when individuals sign their treaty benefit paperwork with HR after they have started working. Their first few paychecks may be reported on a W-2, and then later ones are reported on the 1042-S

- This happens for both teachers and researchers who have an unlimited maximum of treaty benefits for wages, and for students who have a limited amount of treaty exempt wage income, and their total income is less than their treaty benefit.

You only received a W-2 for wages. You are eligible for a treaty benefit, but you did not receive a 1042-S form.

- This commonly occurs for individuals who do not work for the U of M, or who never signed treaty paperwork with payroll at the UofM.

- In this case your “1042-S” is $0.

You received two 1042-S forms, and together they total more than your treaty benefit.

- This commonly occurs when students transfer between schools, and each school independently applies the treaty to their wages.

Wage Treaty Benefits Do Not Match Guide

This guide will help you update your return when you received a scholarship or fellowship grant(s), but did not have an income document for some or all of it

Your only documentation may be fellowship award letter, student account statement, paystub record, or some other notice.

Generally treaty benefits for scholarships and fellowships are unlimited. This means that whatever your amount of scholarship or fellowship income is, it will “match” your treaty benefits. If you are from the Commonwealth of Independent States (the only treaty where benefits are limited) and your 1042-S for scholarships exceeds your treaty benefit, please contact us at taxassistance@nrvtap.com and we’ll assist you with this correction.

Fellowship or Scholarship Not Reported on 1042-S Guide

In very limited situations, individuals who are tax residents of Canada, Mexico, India, or S. Korea may be able to take a deduction for a dependent (a child or possibly a parent, never a spouse). In general, only a parent from Canada, Mexico, India, or S. Korea; who has a child that is both a U.S. citizen and has a SSN; will be able to claim that child as a dependent.

This guide walks you through the fine details of who qualifies, and helps you claim the dependent if you meet the requirements.

Dependents Guide

If you made a contribution to a U.S. charitable organization, this guide will help you determine if you can deduct that on your tax return, and then walk you through the steps to do so.

Charitable contributions can be of money or property. You must keep records to provide the amount or value of the contributions you have made. Contributions exceeding $250 will generally require additional documentation. Donations of property are valued based on the fair market value of the items at the time of the contribution, not the original value.

The contributions must be to qualified charitable organizations. You can verify your organization here: https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/

Charitable Contributions Guide

If you are paying interest on a qualifying student loan, you may be able to deduct that interest on your taxes. You should get a 1098-E document to report the interest, and this guide will help you include it on your tax return.

Student Loan Interest Guide

Did you receive a 1099-R? This is very unusual, but can happen if you start working for a company and get signed up for their retirement plan, then leave the company and have that money returned to you. This guide walks you through how to enter that income in TaxSlayer if you received one of these forms.

IRA / 401(k) Distributions Guide