USA Nonresident refund for DC (D-40B) when domiciled in foreign country

[rhablitso]

I am a non-US citizen who lived in DC for 3 months working on a temporary work visa. My permanent residence is in a foreign country and I was in DC for less than 183 days. Therefore I believe I would not be considered a DC resident for tax purposes and should be able to file a D-40B form to get a refund of my DC income taxes that were withheld.

However, the D-40B form requires that I list the "2 letter state abbreviation for your domiciliary or legal state of residence". How can I fill the form out if I was not domiciled in any US state but rather in a foreign country? Or as a non-citizen do I have to pay state income taxes in one of the states even though I do not meet the requirements for residency in any of them?

 

[RYKAT]

Hi
Generally if you are not a US citizen and have not lived more than 183 days in the States, then you are considered to file as a non-resident 1040NR. Your legal state of residence would be overseas. If you file as a Resident of the US, then you need to declare which state you were a legal resident of. Filing your federal return as a non-resident would resolve this problem. However, non-resident tax rates are higher than resident tax rates for federal taxes.