Tax Reporting Documents

Annual Tax and Payment Records

New: Get your W-2 tax reporting document

Tax reporting documents (1042-S, W-2, 1099, and 1098-T) are a record of payments received and taxes paid in the prior calendar year. Payments of a particular income type (and from the same payment system) are aggregated in a single tax reporting document, which is issued depending on:

  • your U.S. tax residency status
  • the type of income you received
  • whether you claimed tax treaty benefits
  • where the work associated with the payment was carried out (see Note 1)

To find out which document(s) you should receive, please see the table below. For additional information on each document type, and approximate distribution dates, please see the 2023 Tax Document Contact Grid.

Table 1: Types of Income

Type of income

Nonresident alien

Resident alien

Salary/employment compensation with tax treaty benefits(service)

1042-S

1042-S for treaty exemption amount, W-2 for FICA amount

Salary/employment compensation without treaty benefits (service)

W-2

W-2

OPT salary (service)

W-2

W-2

Salary/employment compensation with corrected Social Security and Medicare tax withholding (service) W-2 C (see Note 2) W-2 C (see Note 2)

Independent contractor compensation/honorarium (service)

1042-S

1099-NEC (see Note 3)

Scholarship (only covering tuition and related expenses) (non-service)

1098-T

1098-T

Fellowship/stipend/scholarship (amount exceeding tuition and related expenses) (non-service)

1042-S

No document issued (see Note 4)

Royalty (non-service)

1042-S

1099

Other income/prize (non-service)

1042-S

1099

Note 1: Payment to nonresident aliens for work/research conducted outside the U.S. is exempt from taxation and will not result in the generation of a tax reporting document.

Note 2: The W-2 correction document is for your personal records. Your federal taxes can be filed without it.

Note 3: Only when the aggregate received in a calendar year is $600 or greater.

Note 4: Although no tax reporting document is issued, you are still responsible for independently reporting this income to the U.S. tax authorities, and are advised to use your personal pay records to report on a quarterly basis (as opposed to once a year).

Disclaimer

The information contained within this website is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice.  All information in this site is provided "as is", with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information, and without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including, but not limited to warranties of performance and fitness for a particular purpose.