Compensation and Taxes

Information about Postdoc Compensation Minimums and relevant salary policies can be found here.

Tax Disclaimer: The information below is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered tax or legal advice. For tax or legal advice, please contact a qualified professional.

Basic tax information and commonly used forms are available from the Ohio State Office of Human Resources Tax Office (Payroll Services). Payroll Services, however, cannot provide personalized tax guidance and encourages individuals to contact a tax advisor or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 1-800-829-1040 for specific information and advice about your tax obligations.

If you are on a fellowship that sends the funds directly to you (e.g. NSF Fellowships), and your taxes are not being collected by the university, you need to file quarterly taxes on your own. For more information, click here.

The Fisher/Ohio State Tax Clinic: provides free tax preparation services to low-income taxpayers of Columbus. For more information, click here.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA): free income tax preparation assistance is available to students and low-income citizens of Columbus. For more information, click here.

GLACIER Tax Prep for Non Resident Alien Income Tax Returns: GLACIER is a software designed to help prepare tax returns for international employees. For more information and who to contact regarding registering for this software and if you have questions, please visit the OIA website here.

Considerations for International Postdocs : Postdocs who are foreign nationals may want to review the materials posted in the Nonresident Aliens section of the Payroll Services site. Postdocs who are nonresident aliens for tax purposes (excluding permanent residents with green cards) must use Glacier software, which will determine the correct amount of federal tax to be withheld from their paychecks. An email with a password and information about Glacier should arrive two to three weeks after you begin your postdoctoral position. If you are a nonresident alien and you have not received Glacier information, please contact the Tax Office at taxoffice@osu.edu. It is important to establish a record in the Glacier system because you may qualify for the benefit of a tax treaty if one exists between your home country and the United States. More information about U.S. taxes is available from the Office of International Affairs.

Other Tax Resources

Ohio Taxes. You may have the option to use the state of Ohio’s online tax filing system, this page tells you are eligible to use that or not. If you can use that, you would do it yourself and it does not cost any money to use the online filing service.

Third-party options. There are companies that help you file your taxes, such as Intuit or H&R Block. Sometimes these companies might offer free tax assistance if you make under a certain amount of money per year, but you should expect to pay if you use one of these companies. Please get in touch with these companies directly to find out more about their services.

PDA Tax workshop: 

The PDA organizes a tax session for postdocs every year. For information about this workshop, contact the International Chair of the PDA which can be found here.

Here are the slides from a tax workshop that the PDA put on in 2019: https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/5/7046/files/2019/01/Tax-Talk-Slides-2019-for-distribution-1u4jx0z.pdf  There are some helpful links and tips in there.

OIA Tax help. The Office of International Affairs (OIA) also has a site dedicated to tax questions for international scholars: https://oia.osu.edu/important-information/int-scholars-taxes-and-social-security.html