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11 Comments

  1. @John,

    I think you did it right.

    And yes, the IRS instructions can be a giant bag of obscurity, sometimes.

  2. Phil,
    A question:
    I have actually sent my 1040NR + “original” 8854 to Austin and “copy” of my 8854 to Philadelphia.
    I took “copy” in the instructions to mean: make a photocopy of the whole thing including the signed signature page of the “original”. I did this, marked “copy” on the front with a red stamp and sent it. Is that correct- or should i have signed the “copy” rather than photocopying the signed page… Or does it matter? Now im worried – dont u love the irs ;-(

    – Thx in advance
    John

  3. @John,

    I don’t see any harm. Write “copy” on all of them.

    As a general operating principle, overkill is the minimum acceptable effort, right? 🙂

  4. Hi Phil,
    Thx for ur reply- so just on my last point – do u think there is any harm in sending two copies of 8854 (instead of one) to the irs in philadelphia. I.e. one by registered mail to their normal address, and the other to their unofficial street address by fedex?

    PS – I actually have to do this soon and am a bit worried ….
    Thx again – John

  5. @John,

    The filing process for Form 8854 is a mystery to me except perhaps the explanation is that the IRS doesn’t trust its internal systems so it wants you to give them extra copies of stuff because of internal communications failures.

    I agree that the 8854 attached to the 1040NR should be sufficient and should be the event that rings the bell for the IRS. Either you filed that on time or not.

    Interesting point on the instructions and the filing date for the copy — good catch. I don’t know whether that is accidental or deliberate.

  6. A couple of things:
    1/ If u file a 1040nr – the original 8854 goes with that. The Philadelphia version is a copy – marked copy. Hence once the original is filed that should be it, no?? The copy is surely a backup. Or you are filing the same form twice??
    2/ ok given the irs is going to apply the drop dead date even to the copy (btw i note that the instructions dont actually explicitly apply the filing date to the copy – read it carefully 😉 ) and there is no official pds address – but a pretty good unofficial one – why not send two philadelphia copies. One via mail and one to the unofficial market street address via fedex.. Theres no way they can say it aint filed then.. ?? Any Comments Phil – thx dude..

  7. @Phil,

    Yes, it is stated on the post but like you said and from 8854 instruction, that is not the official address of mailing which if the expatriate will follow the post above, the IRS can simply deny it because that is not the address officially stated in the form 8854. (It’s really about following instructions as that is the Uncle Sam’s law, follow the law/rules.) What I meant is the IRS put some non-sense deviation from the standard writing of mailing address… Seriously ! If I were the USPS mailman, I would be pissed reading and locating the address to deliver mails to IRS offices.. But I guess, in the US it is expected the USPS post office/mailman are automatic to know the IRS Philadelphia location.

  8. @Ann,

    Not to worry. The address is on Market Street in Philly. I think it is in the post but I can’t tell right now — I’m sitting on the floor in the Guangzhou airport waiting for a connecting flight to Singapore. 🙂

    If it’s not in the blog post you can find the Market Street address and zip code in El Goog, I’m sure.

    Phil.

  9. Phil,

    I wonder if the USPS will accept or deliver the mailed envelope of 8854 to the Philadelphia location because there is NO STREET ADDRESS — this is scary. Although there is ZIP code but still NO STREET ADDRESS… oh myyy …I just noticed the form 8854 instructions right now as I’m reading it.

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