US LLC on an F-1, OPT or H-1B Visa: Your Tax Bucket (2026)

Most advice for owners of a US LLC is written for one of two people: a US resident, or a founder who has never lived in the US. You may be neither. You may be studying in Boston on an F-1, or working in Austin on an H-1B, with an LLC you formed on the side. The tax answers for those two situations are different, and the difference is not obvious from the visa name.

The first question is which tax bucket you are in. Everything else follows from it. This article covers the tax side only. It does not cover immigration, and it does not tell you what your visa allows.

Global Solo writes for founders who run a US LLC as non-US tax residents. That is a tax status, not a location. A student sitting in the US can be inside that scope. An H-1B holder in the same city usually is not. I have run a US LLC from Hong Kong since 2019, so the abroad-founder case is the one I know first-hand. The in-US case below is from the IRS's own pages, which I read on 2026-10-10 and quote with their dates.

The two buckets, in one table

The sections below show where each row comes from. The IRS gives rules, not visa-by-visa verdicts, so the bucket labels are my reading of those rules. Read the sources, then check your own days.

How the IRS decides: the substantial presence test

The IRS's substantial presence test page (reviewed 14 March 2026) opens with the rule: "You will be considered a United States resident for tax purposes if you meet the substantial presence test for the calendar year."

The test has two parts. You need at least 31 days in the US this year. You also need 183 days across three years, counted as all of this year's days, one-third of last year's and one-sixth of the year before. The IRS gives an example: 120 days in each of 2023, 2024 and 2025 comes to 120 + 40 + 20 = 180, "you are not considered a resident under the substantial presence test for 2025."

A green card also makes you a resident for tax. Publication 519 (2025): "You are a resident alien of the United States for tax purposes if you meet either the green card test or the substantial presence test for calendar year 2025".

Note what is missing. Neither test asks what your visa is called. The visa matters only because one list of visas gets a carve-out.

Bucket 1: F, J, M and Q students are "exempt individuals"

On the same page, under days of presence: "Do not count days for which you are an exempt individual." The IRS adds that the term "does not refer to someone exempt from U.S. tax." It means someone whose days are left out of the count.

The page lists the categories. Two matter here:

• "A teacher or trainee temporarily present in the U.S. under a 'J' or 'Q' visa, who substantially complies with the requirements of the visa."
• "A student temporarily present in the U.S. under an 'F,' 'J,' 'M,' or 'Q' visa, who substantially complies with the requirements of the visa."

The IRS's exempt individual page for students (reviewed 6 July 2026) defines a student as someone "temporarily in the United States on an 'F,' 'J,' 'M,' or 'Q' visa for the primary purpose of studying at an academic institution or vocational school, and who substantially complies with the requirements of that visa."

If your days are left out, you do not reach 183, so you stay a nonresident alien for tax. That is why this group sits inside Global Solo's scope even though you live in the US.

There is a limit, and it is the part people miss. The same page says you "will not be an exempt individual as a student if you have been exempt as a teacher, trainee, student, Exchange Visitor, or Cultural Exchange Visitor on an 'F,' 'J,' 'M,' or 'Q' visa for any part of more than 5 calendar years." An exception applies if you show to the IRS's satisfaction that you do not intend to reside permanently in the US and have complied with your visa. Publication 519 repeats the five-year rule and lists the facts the IRS weighs, including whether you "have taken affirmative steps to change your status from nonimmigrant to lawful permanent resident".

Teachers and trainees on J or Q have a shorter clock. Publication 519: "You will not be an exempt individual as a teacher or trainee in 2025 if you were exempt as a teacher, trainee, or student for any part of 2 of the 6 preceding calendar years", with a narrow exception when a foreign employer paid all your compensation.

Two practical points about the exemption:

• You have to claim it. The IRS page says to include Form 8843 with your income tax return, or to send it in on its own if you do not file one. If you do not file it on time, it says you "cannot exclude the days", with a narrow exception for clear and convincing evidence of reasonable steps.
• OPT is not named. No IRS page I read mentions OPT or practical training. OPT is a work period tied to F-1 status, but whether a student on OPT still "substantially complies with the requirements of the visa" is the IRS's test and an immigration question. I could not source an IRS statement that OPT days are exempt, so I am not making one.

Bucket 2: H-1B, L-1, O-1, E-2 and H-4 days count

The list of exempt categories has four entries: foreign government-related individuals on A or G visas, J and Q teachers and trainees, F, J, M and Q students, and a professional athlete at a charitable sports event. H-1B, L-1, O-1, E-2 and H-4 do not appear on it. I am reading that absence, and the IRS does not write out "H-1B days count" on the pages I fetched. The reading follows from the rule: a day you are physically present counts unless a listed exception removes it.

So the clock runs. After 31 days in a year and 183 weighted days across three, the substantial presence test is met. The year you arrive is usually split. Publication 519 answers an H-1B holder who arrived on June 30 with "You were a dual-status alien last year." You are a resident from the residency starting date, which "is generally the first day you are present in the United States during that calendar year", and a nonresident before it. Arrive late enough in the year and you may not meet the test that year at all. The IRS lists one more way out for people who meet the test: the "closer connection exception" to the substantial presence test, which it describes on a separate page. Whether you qualify depends on facts the IRS weighs, and this article does not apply it to you.

For the reader this means one thing. If you are an H-1B holder past your arrival year, you are usually a US resident alien, and the nonresident articles on this site do not describe your tax. From your residency starting date the US-resident playbook applies: ordinary resident rules for paying yourself, payroll and S-corp questions that a nonresident cannot use. Global Solo does not cover that playbook, and I will not reframe H-1B holders as nonresident to make this article reach more people. The error this article exists to correct is the belief that an LLC owner on a work visa is a nonresident because their passport is foreign.

A change of visa can move you between buckets mid-stream. A student who moves to H-1B stops excluding days from that point, and the three-year count then includes the earlier years at the fractions above, with exempt years left out as the IRS rules describe. Run the count for your own years, or give the dates to a US tax preparer who handles nonresident and resident returns.

If you are a nonresident in the US: your US work is US-source

This is where an in-US student founder differs most from the abroad founder.

Publication 519, Table 2-1 ("Summary of Source Rules for Income of Nonresident Aliens"), gives the source of "Business income: Personal services" as "Where services performed". The same table gives "Salaries, wages, other compensation" the same factor.

Pay for services you perform while physically in the US is US-source. Pay for services performed abroad is not. A founder in Karachi who serves US clients has no US-source income from that work. You, at a desk in the US, do.

The next step is the trade or business question. Publication 519: "You are usually engaged in a U.S. trade or business when you perform personal services in the United States." The IRS's effectively connected income page (reviewed 18 August 2026) says it the same way: "Foreign persons generally are engaged in a U.S. trade or business when personal services are performed in the U.S." It adds that the activities have to be "considerable, continuous and regular".

The same page has a line for students, teachers and trainees in F, J, M or Q status: a nonresident in that status is treated, under IRC 871(c), as engaged in a US trade or business for the purpose of taxing certain US-source income. Its example is the taxable part of a US-source scholarship or fellowship grant. So leaving days out of the count and the trade-or-business rules are two separate questions. Being exempt from the first does not settle the second.

For a self-employed person who splits time, Publication 519 says you "determine the source of compensation for labor or personal services from self-employment on the basis that most correctly reflects the proper source of that income under the facts and circumstances of your particular case", and in many cases that calls for apportionment on a time basis.

An abroad founder often owes no US income tax on this work. For a nonresident working in the US, the starting point flips. How tax then works, including the filing and the rates, is in How a Non-Resident-Owned US LLC Is Taxed. Read its trade-or-business section with your US workdays in mind.

I am not telling you what you owe. Whether a treaty applies, and how many US workdays you had, changes the answer, and a tax preparer who files Form 1040-NR can run it.

Form 5472: the filing that follows the bucket

The Form 5472 instructions (reviewed 30 April 2026) define the case: "A foreign-owned U.S. DE is a domestic DE that is wholly owned by a foreign person." A DE is a disregarded entity, which is what a single-member LLC is by default. The first entry in its definition of a foreign person is "An individual who is not a citizen or resident of the United States".

Read that against the buckets.

• If you are a nonresident alien (Bucket 1), you are a foreign person, so a single-member LLC you wholly own is a foreign-owned US DE. The instructions say that for the limited purposes of section 6038A it is "treated as an entity separate from its owner and classified as a corporation". The penalty: "A penalty of $25,000 will be assessed on any reporting corporation that fails to file Form 5472 when due and in the manner prescribed."
• If you are a resident alien (Bucket 2), the definition of foreign person excludes residents of the United States, so on its face a wholly owned single-member LLC is not a foreign-owned US DE. This is my reading of the definition. The instructions do not walk through an H-1B example. If your status changed during the year, the answer for that year is a question for the preparer.

Being a student does not take you out of the form. Living in the US does not either. Tax residency decides it. The full filing guide is Form 5472: $25,000 Penalty for Non-Resident LLCs.

Opening the LLC's account while you live in the US

The bank asks its own questions, and your tax bucket is not one of them. The federal rule on what a bank collects before it opens an account (31 CFR 1020.220) asks for a name, a date of birth, an address and an ID number. For a non-US person, that number can be "A taxpayer identification number; passport number and country of issuance; alien identification card number", or the number of another government photo ID. A passport meets that floor. Each provider can ask for more.

The address is where living in the US helps. The rule asks an individual for "a residential or business street address". Relay lists "Physical U.S. address (no PO boxes, no virtual mailboxes)" for every beneficial owner. A founder abroad has no such address to give, and you do. Mercury, a fintech business banking platform, asks each owner for "the physical address where that person currently lives" and turns away "commercial mail-receiving or virtual address services".*

*Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

On ID, the two providers' pages differ. Relay takes "passport only" from non-US citizens, so your visa does not change what you show it. Mercury lists a passport for international applicants and also says "US Permanent Residents or Non-Citizens may provide a Permanent Residency Card or Employment Authorization Card". An OPT student who holds an EAD card has a second option there.

Then the SSN. The Social Security Administration says "Some noncitizens may be able to request a number if they work or attend school, or if they have a valid nonwork reason." The IRS issues an ITIN only "if you have a federal tax purpose and you’re not eligible for an SSN", and its ITIN page says an ITIN does not authorize work. Relay asks for "Social Security Number (SSN) or passport number", so an SSN is not the only way in. Whether either provider takes an ITIN in place of an SSN, I could not find on their pages, so I am leaving that as unknown rather than guessing.

The one question this article does not answer

Can your visa status let you work for your own LLC? That is an immigration question. It does not belong to the IRS, and it does not belong to Global Solo.

Tax residency can be right and the visa question still open: an F-1 student can be a nonresident alien for tax and still have restrictions on the work they do. An immigration attorney is the person to ask, before you bill your first client. I am not able to tell you which side of that line your situation falls on, and neither is a tax preparer or a formation service.

What to do with this

You can do three things, none of which is advice about what to choose.

1. Write down your US days for each of the last three years, with your visa category for each year.
2. Check your category against the IRS's exempt individual list above. If you are an F, J, M or Q student, also count how many calendar years you have been exempt.
3. Take the answer, and your visa question, to the right professionals: a tax preparer for the buckets and the filings, an immigration attorney for the work question.

If you want a map of your own structure first, the Quick Check below takes two minutes.

FAQ

I am on OPT. Am I a nonresident for tax? OPT is a period of work tied to F-1 status. The IRS pages I read do not mention OPT. If you remain an exempt F-1 student, your days are left out of the count. That depends on the facts of your status and on the five-calendar-year limit, so check both.

I am on an H-1B and own an LLC. Can I use the non-resident articles on this site? Usually not. H-1B is not an exempt category, so your days count, and after the substantial presence test is met you are a US resident for tax. The US-resident playbook applies.

I am a student and my LLC has no clients yet. Do I still file Form 5472? Form 5472 turns on reportable transactions between the LLC and a related party. The instructions list an exception for an LLC with no reportable transactions of the types listed. Money you put in to fund the LLC counts as a transaction, so check the filing guide before assuming zero.

Does US-source income mean I pay US tax at the same rates as a citizen? Publication 519 says effectively connected income, after deductions, "is taxed at graduated rates" that are "the same rates that apply to U.S. citizens and residents." Whether your work is effectively connected depends on the points above.

Do I need an SSN to open my LLC's business account? Not under the federal floor. For a non-US person, the bank rule accepts a passport number in place of a taxpayer identification number, and Relay asks for a "Social Security Number (SSN) or passport number". Each provider can add its own requirements, and neither Mercury's nor Relay's pages say whether an ITIN is accepted instead of an SSN.

Can I work for my own LLC on an F-1? This article does not answer that. It is an immigration question. Ask an immigration attorney.

Do I count days if I was only passing through? The substantial presence test page excludes some days, including being in the US "for less than 24 hours" while in transit between two places outside the US. Other exclusions exist, and the page links to Publication 519.

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Key Takeaways

• Tax residency is a day count, not a visa label. The substantial presence test needs at least 31 days this year and 183 weighted days over three years.
• F, J, M and Q students who meet the IRS conditions are exempt individuals: their days are left out, so they can stay nonresident aliens. The student exemption stops after more than 5 calendar years unless an exception applies. The IRS pages read do not mention OPT.
• H-1B, L-1, O-1, E-2 and H-4 are not on the IRS exempt list. Their days count. The arrival year is often dual-status; after it, the US-resident playbook applies.
• For a nonresident in the US, pay for services performed in the US is US-source. The IRS says such a person is usually engaged in a US trade or business.
• Form 5472 follows tax residency through the "foreign person" definition.
• Whether your visa permits you to work for your LLC is for an immigration attorney.

Related Reading

• How a Non-Resident-Owned US LLC Is Taxed
• How to Pay Yourself From a US LLC as a Non-Resident
• Form 5472: $25,000 Penalty for Non-Resident LLCs
• How Tax Residency Is Determined
• Do You Need a US LLC as a Non-Resident? Decision Framework
• EIN vs ITIN: What Non-Resident Founders Need
• DIY Tax Filing for a Zero-Revenue Foreign-Owned LLC
• Mercury vs Wise vs Relay for Non-Resident LLCs

References

All pages below were fetched and read on 2026-10-10.

• IRS: Substantial presence test (reviewed 14 March 2026) — the 31-day and 183-day count; exempt individual categories; Form 8843
• IRS: Exempt individual, who is a student (reviewed 6 July 2026) — student definition; the 5-calendar-year limit
• IRS: Publication 519 (2025), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens — resident alien tests; exempt individuals; Table 2-1 source rules; personal services and US trade or business
• IRS: Effectively connected income (ECI) (reviewed 18 August 2026) — personal services performed in the US; "considerable, continuous and regular"
• IRS: Instructions for Form 5472 (reviewed 30 April 2026) — foreign person; foreign-owned US DE; $25,000 penalty
• eCFR: 31 CFR 1020.220, Customer identification program requirements for banks (as of 1 October 2026) — address and ID number a bank collects; passport option for a non-US person
• IRS: Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (reviewed 28 October 2025) — who needs an ITIN; what it does not do
• SSA: Request a Social Security number for the first time — which noncitizens can request a number
• Relay: Required documents to open a Relay account (updated 11 August 2026) — passport, SSN or passport number, physical US address
• Mercury: Gathering your documents and Eligibility and requirements (no date shown) — accepted IDs; owner home address

Quick Check: the 2-minute short form of the Free Diagnostic →

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Disclosure

Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.

Global Solo earns affiliate commissions from some providers mentioned in linked articles. Editorial selection precedes any commission agreement; see our methodology.