@collis @natman Hello, there must be something wrong with the information you’re getting on the foreign tax ID number. I called the IRS yesterday and to them it was clear that the field must be left blank if I live in a country that does have a tax treaty (France in my case, 0%) AND does not deliver foreign tax identification numbers to their citizens. I quote the IRS :
“If your are providing this Form W-8BEN to document yourself with respect to a financial account that your hold at a US office of a financial institution, provide the tax identifiying number (TIN) issued to you by your jurisdiction of tax residence unless : you have not been issued a TIN OR the jurisdiction does not issue TINs. If your have not provided your jurisdiction of residence on line 6, provide your date of birth in line 8.”
We do have a tax treaty, we do not have to see these 30% held, and we do not have to ask for an ITIN because the “not provided” case is clear : no TIN + tax treaty = blank.
The W-8BEN is a personal declaration that I live in a certain country. It is based on honor in order to claim a tax treaty benefit. It is never written in the W8-BEN instructions that I have to ask for an ITIN if my country does not issue a TIN, it is written to leave the space blank.
In short, the TIN or ITIN or EIN (for companies) is NOT required to claim a tax treaty benefit. This is the job of the W8 form.
If you withhold 30% it means you consider that I did not filled the W8. So you’re not applying the IRS rules correctly when you state that “not provided” for the TIN = 30% held.
Further information found on the IRS website : in order to be able to ask for an ITIN, we must be able to produce some documents, including :
“Your original, valid tax return(s) for which the ITIN is needed. Attach Form W-7 to the front of your tax return. If you are applying for more than one ITIN for the same tax return (such as for a spouse or dependent(s)), attach all Forms W-7 to the same tax return. After your Form W-7 has been processed, the IRS will assign an ITIN to the return and process the return.”
If your persist to ask for an ITIN (once again, not necessary for us to claim our tax treaty benefit, which is the purpose of the W8 form), are you able to provide us with this document within days so that we are compliant on january first?
Thanks for reading this!