How to report foreign interest income without a FEIN?

[AlexanderX]

Just want to say how very helpful your post and insights were....I received interest last year as part of a payment of previously-unpaid income earned in 2021 from a former foreign employer and was tearing my hair out on how to report the interest separately from the earned income and the tax I paid to the country where I earned it.  Like yourself, reporting the interest in 1099-MISC and then adding the foreign tax paid to Form 1116 did the trick.

[StanduptoMusk2024]

I had the exact similar situation for both foreign interest and dividends.  For the interest, I followed the advice of the original poster and put it into misc. income. For dividends,  I could not find a solution and called TurboTax.  She had no solution and we decided to ignore the FEIN issue and leave dividends in the 1099-DIV section and submit return.  You simply click on "file" in the left hand bar and follow the prompts. 

It worked!.  Seems like you can ignore the "issue message" and file anyway. I checked the return and the dividend amount, ended up in the right place on my 1040.  Hope that helps.

[nitoro]

I have TurboTax Premier. I do not see "Less Common Income --> Miscellaneous Income --> Other reportable income" anywhere. Which section of "Wages and Income" did you use? Thanks.

[DaveF1006]

Yes. Follow this navigational path.

1. Log into your account
2. Select Wages and income
3. Less Common income
4. Miscellaneous Income, 1099-A, 1099>start.  See the first screenshot
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page to Other Reportable Income. See the second screenshot.

[nitoro]

Thank you for the prompt response - I can see it. 

Will remove the foreign account interest information from the "Interest and Dividends" section, and will use the "Less Common Income" section. 

Thanks again for the screenshots.

[ericfons]

regarding "Finally, one of their reps found the FEIN of the bank (it was ICICI bank)".......so what is the FEIN that worked for ICICI Bank?

[DianeW777]

It's not necessary if you follow the steps to enter your foreign interest income using the steps below and remove it from interest and dividends.

Other Miscellaneous Income:

1. Sign into your TurboTax Online account
2. Go to Tax Home (left panel)  Wages and Income  section
3. Scroll to  Less Common Income > Select  Miscellaneous Income, 1099-A, 1099-C
4. Select Other reportable Income > Enter a description (----) and the amount

@ericfons 

[ericfons]

This work-around for not being able to  submit a 1099-INT for  a foreign bank that does not have a FEIN works:

1. Sign into your TurboTax Online account
2. Go to Tax Home (left panel)  Wages and Income  section
3. Scroll to  Less Common Income > Select  Miscellaneous Income, 1099-A, 1099-C
4. Select Other reportable Income > Enter a description (----) and the amount

works for reporting the "interest income". However, unlike the 1099-INT there is no field to enter "foreign taxes paid", ie the taxes that were collected by the foreign bank that also paid you interest.  Later if your try to claim credit for the foreign taxes paid via "Deductions & Credits" --> "Foreign Taxes" --> "Take a Credit" --> "Reporting Foreign Taxes Paid" -->"Select the Country from drop-down list" --> "Report Income" button --> here it lists other 1099-DIV forms that had "foreign taxes paid" but no option to select the "other reportable Income" where I had listed the foreign interest that was paid.

In summary, the work-around of reporting foreign interest via "other reportable income" works for  reporting the interest paid by the foreign bank without a FEIN but then this work-around does not not work for claiming tax credit for the taxes that the foreign bank had collected.

[pk]

@ericfons , I have been following this thread for some time.  However, unless this is an "on-line" specific issue, I don't  know how to duplicate this.  On my Windows Home & Business download, I can  -- under personal income tab, select "I will choose what I work on", then from the list of incomes, go to  "Interest / Dividend".. ,  choose  " I will type it in myself " --- this then puts up a screen  with  "tablets "  for  Interest, Dividend .... .  Click on the Interest income ---- Now it want the name of the  Interest provider  ---- , does not ask for EIN,  but does allow me to say "I have more boxes " and selecting this allows  many items including " Federal  Taxes withheld"., Foreign Taxes paid etc.

 Sorry, I do not see the  problem / issue .

[ccpbraz]

Check this to search for the FEIN of the international financial institution:

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/fatca-foreign-financial-institution-list-search-and-down...

then I applied the found GIIN in the FEIN field, and the TurboTax error was gone!

[ericfons]

Thank you for this link: https://apps.irs.gov/app/fatcaFfiList/flu.jsf 

For ICICI Bank India, when this GIIN value LDLP3A.99999.SL.356 (obtained from above link) is entered  in the FEIN field on the 1099-INT, TurboTax Premier 2024 Desktop edition accepts the 1099-INT and "Tools-->Final Review" does not complain. Any other dummy values such as 00-0000000 and 99-9999999 in the FEIN get flagged by TurboTax's Final Review.

[gosanth]

Can you please provide the FEIN for ICICI bank here?  It will be helpful for me and others 

[SusanY1]

You can e-file with the EIN box left blank for foreign bank interest and this is the best way to file.  If you are receiving an error, return to the interest entry and be sure there is no amount showing in "Box 4 - Federal income tax withheld".  If your foreign bank withheld foreign tax, enter that amount instead in Box 6 for credit for the foreign taxes paid.  

@gosanth 

[gosanth]

Thank you for responding.   It is not allowing during validation when I tried.  I did not have anything in Box 4 anyway.  I will try again.  If there is one FEIN like someone pointed in the thread, it is useful to have if someone shares it.   

[gosanth]

Looks like it is EIN 98-0369454      This is according to eintaxid.com.  Can someone confirm?