07/15/2002
We have a nonresident alien who has applied for a TIN, but has not received it yet and would like to open an account. Should this account be opened pending receipt of the TIN? If so, what form should we have them complete? It appears to me that form W8 was replaced by form W8BEN in December 2000. Would this be the correct form?
07/15/2002
I am doing TIN Compliance at a bank in the Northern part of the U.S. and have come across an issue I could not resolve. We have customers that are Canadian Citizens. They have social security numbers and receive social security benefits. They say they don't pay taxes here. We have the accounts coded to suppress the 1099 and we issue a 1042S. I called the Internal Revenue Service to see if we are doing the reporting correctly and was told that even though the social security benefits were not taxable, any earned interest should be and they should be filing a US tax return. He also indicated that graduated tax rates are based on income and whether or not they are resident or nonresident aliens will play an important part in determining any tax liability. Is there a stated policy we should be enforcing with such customers? The IRS agent implied each case could be different and was unable to give me a definite answer. What documentation do we need in addition to the W8 Ben? Would putting their social security number on line 6 be sufficient? I just want to be sure we are reporting correctly and we have the needed documents. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
07/01/2002
We have a noninterest bearing account designed for "civic associations" e.g., girl scout troop #25; north metro soccer league, etc. Most of the time, the individual opening the account for this association wants to use their own social security number as the tax ID on the account as opposed to applying for a TIN in the name of the group. My CEO wants us to allow customers to do this so that it is "easy for the customer". These are "obviously incorrect" tax ID numbers in that the name of the account and the name of the individual do not match. Is this a problem?
06/28/2002
06/19/2002
The good thing about bank cashier's checks is that they are readily accepted and often treated the same as cash.
02/01/2002
There is one type of transaction that is not covered in depth in the Bank Secrecy Act or the instructions for the Currency Transaction Report or the Suspicious Activity Report.
11/01/2001
You will find an occasional slight difference in the instructions given by the Bank Secrecy Act itself, and the Currency Transaction Form (CTR).
07/09/2001
I read an article several years ago regarding an IRS requirement that if there is joint account wros and the primary owner(1099 information reported under this person's SSN) dies, the 1099 for that year should include the interest for the primary owner only through the date of death. A new account should be opened for the surviving owner in order to correctly report the interest going forward. Is this IRS requirement still in effect? If so, would it be required for a husband and wife filing a joint return?
07/02/2001
If we have a joint trust account with a husband and wife (both as trustees) and are using the social security number of the husband and he dies, can we change the TIN to the wife's social security number or do we have to have an EIN?
01/01/2000