This year TurboTax is forcing me to give a FEIN for 1099 INT which the foreign banks don't have/provide

If you choose the option "I'll type it in myself" on the screen that says "Let Us Enter your 1099-INT" you should not be asked to enter an ID number. Are you sure you are in the 1099-INT entry screen?

I did the same as you suggested and it is still asking me "Federal Identification Number (FEIN)" that foreign banks do not provide. This missing info is flagged during the final review.

Yes, I am on the 1099-INT entry screen. 

Any help and suggestions appreciated!

I am having the same issue. I have been doing this for years without and this year it is not allowing me to leave it blank. Need help too!

When entering foreign interest income in TurboTax you do not need to enter a Tax ID. You just need to enter the interest income in U.S. Dollars (USD)

When calculating the conversion to USD keep the calculations in your tax records.

To enter interest, you would:

1. Enter interest income in the Search Magnifying Glass in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
2. Select Jump to interest income.

Do not enter it as if you have a Form 1099-INT

That doesn't help.

When I enter Enter interest income in the Search Magnifying Glass. 

It shows this

"Where do I enter my 1099-INT?

Please try deleting your entry and following these steps to enter your interest income:

1. Click on Wages and Income at the top of the screen
2. Scroll down to Interest and Dividends and click Show More
3. Click on Start or Revisit next to Interest on 1099-INT and then click Yes or "Add another 1099-INT" if applicable
4. Select the option "I'll type it myself" at the bottom of the screen
5. Enter your information as indicated (Please see screen shot below. There is no place that requires an EIN)

If the problem continues to persist, please enter 99-9999999 for EIN.

@simanshudk

@MMM0628

This doesn't help as well.

I did what you suggested and the problem persists. I then added 99-9999999 for EIN and it now says this is not a valid number, please enter a valid number.

Before I entered my question on here I tried doing all zeros and that didn't work so I am not surprised the 9's didn't either. 

The fix: Just enter the financial information without the FEIN number. It WILL tell you it needs review a couple times; just enter through it or actually I believe the button says "continue". It will eventually get tired of asking and take you to the end. lol  

I am not sure why this changed this year after 10+ years??? If people have foreign bank accounts they have to enter it in this area and for the system NOT to be set up to know the FEIN may not be included and then keep asking and telling you need to review it but offer NO solution is really silly. 

VERY CONFUSING this year TURBO TAX!!! There were several things that had no or very poor explanations of where/how to enter information. 

Thank you to everyone that offered help!

Thanks Barbara, that is how I enter my foreign accounts by typing myself but it didn't matter. Just entering through it all and ignoring that it needed review was the only way to get through it. 

I did answer this question somewhere. Sorry I have not entered a question before. 

Thank you for your help, I appreciate it. I hope anyone that is having this issue will be able to find this feed because it was so very confusing. I was so confused thats why I just said OH WELL and just kept hitting continue and if finally took me to the end. LOL

Thanks for your reply. I understand that if we keep ignoring this issue during the review and keep pressing the continue button, I would be able to eventually submit the tax return. 

But this applies to other essential information as well in the TurboTax. If you keep ignoring some of the essential information during the review process eventually TurboTax is not going to stop you from submitting the return. 

This clearly looks like a bug to me as it never happened during the last few years. It is pity that despite numerous users pointing about this issue, TurboTax has not fixed this issue yet. 

To correct the problem, you would:

1. First you would delete the Form 1099-Int in the software
2. Then enter the interest through other interest 

To delete a form off of your return you need to:

1. Select Tax Forms in the Black bar on the left side of the screen.
2. Select Tools from the drop down menu.
3. On the Tools Center Select Delete a form.
4. Locate the form on the list and select Delete.
5. You will be asked to confirm the deletion.

You would enter your Interest Income 

1. Enter interest income other in the Search Magnifying Glass in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
2. Select Go to 1099-Int in the Blue box.

You should be able to enter your interest income without entering a TIN.

That's completely unhelpful. If we are to manually enter the information on the forms ourselves, what benefit does your expensive software provide? 

You can report it under Other Income so that you will be able to e-file.  Here are the steps:

In TurboTax online,

• Sign in to your account, select Pick up where you left off
• To the right upper corner, in the search box, type in "other reportable income" and Enter
• Select Jump to other reportable income
• Next screen, Other Wages Received, select No to continue
• Next screen, scroll down all the way to the bottom, under Other reportable income, select Start
• Next screen, Any Other Taxable Income? select Yes to continue
• Enter a description and the amount.

Technically, you would enter a Form 1099 for interest, dividends to create a Schedule B that goes to the IRS.  However, with a foreign entity, you would not have a US FEIN to qualify for the e-file.  For the workaround, follow the instructions from above.  To the IRS, as long as the total amount is reported on your taxes as Other income on line 7a Form 1040, you should be Okay. 

If you have also paid taxes to a foreign country, you can claim a foreign tax credit on your US return.  Here are the steps:

In TurboTax online,

• Open up your TurboTax account and select Pick up where you left off
• At the right upper corner, in the search box, type in "foreign tax credit" and Enter
• Select Jump to foreign tax credit
• Follow prompts
• On-screen, Tell Us About Your Foreign Taxes, select None of these apply and Continue
• Follow prompts
• On-screen, Choose the Income Type, check Passive Income
• Follow prompts
• On-screen, Other Gross Income-Foreign country, enter description and amount
• Follow prompts, 
• On-screen, Foreign Taxes Paid-foreign country
• Under Foreign Taxes on Other Income, enter the amount
• See the images below

@quite98 @simanshudk @MMM0628

I have the same issue. This needs to be fixed, not impressed at all.

I put in 99-9999999 and it accepted this, until i got right to the end of the process, paid $200, then the issue popped up again! Only option seems to be to file by snail mail.

Again, not impressed Turbotax.

I suspect it is the IRS that is requiring the number in order to accept the return in e-file format.

I faced the same issue.  This edit was not there till last year. When i called Turbo Tax help they advised me to put all 9's. I moved forward with that and paid. It took the payment and then at the filing step it is forcing me to file only through paper. Filing through paper defeats the purpose of a going through an online platform. very frustrated. I opened a ticket for refund of the turbotax fee.

If that is the case it  should be made clear upfront and not after taking payment

If leaving the FEIN blank keeps you from e-filing, delete the 1099-INT, and enter as Other Income.

That changes the calculation because I also have dividends from foregin stocks and they are from long term holding (qualified dividend) which is taxed at different rate. Entering them as other income will probably increase my tax. Secondly, by entering them as interest and dividend they appear on schedule B. I refer to the schedule B line 1 and line 5 in form 1116 (foreign tax credit). What will happen to that? 

If you have foreign tax paid and want to claim a credit there is a work around for that.  As posted above by LinaJ2020:

You can report it under Other Income so that you will be able to e-file.  Here are the steps:

In TurboTax online,

• Sign in to your account, select Pick up where you left off
• To the right upper corner, in the search box, type in "other reportable income" and Enter
• Select Jump to other reportable income
• Next screen, Other Wages Received, select No to continue
• Next screen, scroll down all the way to the bottom, under Other reportable income, select Start
• Next screen, Any Other Taxable Income? select Yes to continue
• Enter a description and the amount.

Technically, you would enter a Form 1099 for interest, dividends to create a Schedule B that goes to the IRS.  However, with a foreign entity, you would not have a US FEIN to qualify for the e-file.  For the workaround, follow the instructions from above.  To the IRS, as long as the total amount is reported on your taxes as Other income on line 7a Form 1040, you should be Okay. 

If you have also paid taxes to a foreign country, you can claim a foreign tax credit on your US return.  Here are the steps:

In TurboTax online,

• Open up your TurboTax account and select Pick up where you left off
• At the right upper corner, in the search box, type in "foreign tax credit" and Enter
• Select Jump to foreign tax credit
• Follow prompts
• On-screen, Tell Us About Your Foreign Taxes, select None of these apply and Continue
• Follow prompts
• On-screen, Choose the Income Type, check Passive Income
• Follow prompts
• On-screen, Other Gross Income-Foreign country, enter description and amount
• Follow prompts, 
• On-screen, Foreign Taxes Paid-foreign country
• Under Foreign Taxes on Other Income, enter the amount

Hello....I was just wondering if anyone got a straight answer on how to enter the FEIN on the 1099 for Foreign Banks. This is really silly because it won't let you file. I did see the fix that you just add the interest income to "other taxable income" which I started to do but wanted to check to see if there was a solution. Thanks!!!

Since you don't actually have Form 1099-INT, the interest should not be reported in the section "Interest reported on a 1099-INT" where the FEIN is required by the program. 

When you enter data into this section, it needs to match the 1099-INT that is on file at the IRS.  In your case, there is no file to match. 

You will need to enter the income in other taxable income when using the online version of TurboTax.  

I tried all zeroes and all nines and both failed. What worked for me was to just put nothing in there (just blank text) and that seemed to work and allowed me to file.

Hi,

Where is this "Other Taxable Income" section that you speak of???

It is clearly stated in other income areas that interest income should not be added there, but should be under 1099-Int. 

This is not a IRS rule change, it is a bug in this this year's version of Turbo tax. Who do we reach out to fix this, because all the responses here are just giving the go arounds!