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:
organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States;
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?
@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 ?
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?
@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.