Hello Community,

I have a client who visited the United States in 2020 on an H2A visa - from Jamaica. My dead end with this return is two-fold - 1. I see an issue with the W-2 to start out with. The employer marked my client as a statutory employee, when according to IRS guidance a farm worker on an H2A is not a statutory employee but a regular employee who in most cases is not subject to payroll taxes or withholding tax. My inclination is to enter the W-2 without checking the statutory employee box and include an attachment with the return stating that H2A employees are not statutory. IF this is not what I'm going to do, this makes my second issue with this client a bit more difficult, because the line for income exempt from tax by a treaty is below the wages line, not the Sched C line, and the software is not subtracting the income exempt from the treaty to calculate tax when I enter the income as Sched C. 2. Per Publication 901, tax treaties, my client is exempt from income taxes if a. he is in the United States for no more than 89 days during the tax year, b. he does not have a fixed base regularly available to him in the United States, AND c. he earned income from services from a US contractor that is not more than $5,000. My issue is that he DID earn more than $5,000 as a farm worker however I cannot figure whether the first $5,000 is still eligible under the treaty or if he now just owes tax on the entirety of his income. The guidance does not seem to clearly spell this out, and I also have not been able to find any specific information on the treaty or special rules that apply to taxpayers on an H2A visa. 

Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Alexander Dixon, EA