My foreign national is from a tax treaty country but Glacier didn’t give them the treaty, why? There could be several reasons. Does your NRA have a hold? Maybe the foreign national has been in the US long enough to exhaust the treaty. Perhaps the foreign national declined the treaty or they are not eligible. My foreign national says they already have a Glacier record from another University. Do they have to do this again? Yes. The Glacier program is used by many universities across the US, but each University’s database is separate and unique. The foreign national must create a separate and distinct login and password in Glacier to distinguish between the databases. My foreign national was given a blank W-4 by Glacier. Why? Your foreign national has been in the US long enough to ‘pass the substantial presence test’ and so is considered a ‘resident alien for tax purposes’. While a non-resident alien for tax purposes is usually limited to only claiming ‘single’ with ‘one allowance’, a resident alien for tax purposes may claim any marital status or number of allowances, so Glacier gives them a blank W-4. What is “Glacier Tax Prep”? The same company (Arctic International) has a program called Glacier Tax Prep, which assists non-resident aliens in completing tax returns. The Office of International Services administers this. If your NRA has questions or problems regarding GTP, please refer them to OIS.
My foreign national is from a tax treaty country but Glacier didn’t give them the treaty, why? There could be several reasons. Does your NRA have a hold? Maybe the foreign national has been in the US long enough to exhaust the treaty. Perhaps the foreign national declined the treaty or they are not eligible. My foreign national says they already have a Glacier record from another University. Do they have to do this again? Yes. The Glacier program is used by many universities across the US, but each University’s database is separate and unique. The foreign national must create a separate and distinct login and password in Glacier to distinguish between the databases. My foreign national was given a blank W-4 by Glacier. Why? Your foreign national has been in the US long enough to ‘pass the substantial presence test’ and so is considered a ‘resident alien for tax purposes’. While a non-resident alien for tax purposes is usually limited to only claiming ‘single’ with ‘one allowance’, a resident alien for tax purposes may claim any marital status or number of allowances, so Glacier gives them a blank W-4. What is “Glacier Tax Prep”? The same company (Arctic International) has a program called Glacier Tax Prep, which assists non-resident aliens in completing tax returns. The Office of International Services administers this. If your NRA has questions or problems regarding GTP, please refer them to OIS.
Glacier-Admin-Training-Guide.docx