Oh *MAN*. I thought the German tax system is complicated. But it’s a joke compared to US one. Everybody has to file taxes to the US (IRA) *AND* all the states *and* counties he worked in. Man, so I had to file federal tax, Indiana tax and county tax (fortunately part of the Indiana tax … so they’re not completely brain-dead). I wasted a *whole* day trying to understand the issues with my visa status and bla bla bla. I didn’t only waste my day but also IU’s tax expert’s day. They’re very very very friendly here, but my case is extremely complicated (I changed visa status). The quintessence: I need to go back to J-1 asap.
Why? Because I am freaking poor now, after I paid my due to the government. But hey, I got a tax return from Indiana … this is so weird. It’s also weird that foreigners can not deduct educational costs (tuition) from their taxes. It’s actually rather unfair, because US citizens can deduct this, and they also get much much more standard deduction :-(. I had $631 as standard deduction and a collegue (US citizen) had more than $5000 -> *ARGH*. Anyway, the taxes are still rather low compared to Germany. All in all (federal, state and county), I paid less than 13%.
I mailed it in today … I hope they’re happy (and can read my handwriting on the state tax forms).