us tax form 8843

My son finished his undergraduate degree in the US in 4 1/2 years on a partial athletic scholarship. He didn't work in US and filed income tax returns at home. He spent part of the next term visiting, training and helping out with his former team while studying for his GRE. He came home for the summer then started his Masters in fall 2009. He just received notice of a seminar on filing as a student that says he is supposed to fle even though he hasn't worked in the US. Should he have filed before and what does he do now?

My son finished his undergraduate degree in the US in 4 1/2 years on a partial athletic scholarship. He didn't work in US and filed income tax returns at home. He spent part of the next term visiting, training and helping out with his former team while studying for his GRE. He came home for the summer then started his Masters in fall 2009. He just received notice of a seminar on filing as a student that says he is supposed to fle even though he hasn't worked in the US. Should he have filed before and what does he do now?

He probably should have filed Form 8843 for past years but I don't think there is problem with filing retroactively.

Ordinarily F-1 students become residents (for tax purposes) after they've been in the USA for five years, and it sounds like your son is approaching that time threshold. Unfortunately I don't know all the details on how the five years are counted or whether the Canada-US tax treaty would modify things.

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