Nonresident Alien with ssn W8 or W9

[tdo061803]

I am helping a friend with some tax questions.

She is a nonresident alien currently live outside of the US.

She has SSN.

She has a bank account in the US.

The bank asks her to file a W8 form first, then when they know she has SSN, they ask her for fill out W9. 

W9 says a US person needs to fill out W9 but it doesn't seem like she fits into the definition of a US person.

If you are a U.S. person and a requester gives you a form

other than Form W-9 to request your TIN, you must use the

requester’s form if it is substantially similar to this Form W-9.

Definition of a U.S. person. For federal tax purposes, you are

considered a U.S. person if you are:

• An individual who is a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident alien;
• A partnership, corporation, company, or association created or

organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States;

• An estate (other than a foreign estate); or
• A domestic trust (as defined in Regulations section 301.7701-7).

She is not a US citizen, an estate, or a domestic trust. Does have a bank account in the US make her fall into the category of partnership? 

[pk]

@tdo061803  so what you are saying is that your friend   (a) was in the USA working  on a work visa / J visa  or (? ) and  has SSN   ( not ITIN ); (b) she had a bank account in the USA which is still active;  (c) now she is back in her home country ( or foreign land).   Just because she was issued a SSN , it does not make her into a Resident Alien.   She should have informed SSA that she has left the country to deactivate her SSN -- suggest do that ASAP ( so it cannot be mis-used , unless she plans to come back soon ).    The bank should be told that in fact she is a NRA and therefore they should be  asking for W-9-BEN and withhold  as required  for NRA

Does this answer your query or do you need more help ?

[tdo061803]

@pk 

Thank you for you reply!

Yes she had worked in the US before and is now living in a foreign land. I couldn't find any information about the W-9-Ben form you mentioned and any information about deactivating SSN. Could you point me to any sites that have more info about this?

[pk]

@tdo061803 , sorry for the  "typo" -- I should have said W-8-BEN.  below is a ref on it :

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw8ben.pdf

to  deactivate the SSN, just call  or visit ( when permitted ) the  local office of Social Security Admin --  they  would have to do it.