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#1164839 - 04/16/09 06:35 PM Passports and Foreign Students
Cat Woman Offline
Diamond Poster
Cat Woman
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 1,342
New England
Does anyone take passport numbers as an acceptable government issued ID number for the purposes of the Patriot Act and if so, how do they validate it?

Also....

Does anyone open accounts for foreign students (without SSNs) and if so, do they require a W-8BEN be completed by the student and do they withhold 30% (the IRS instructions give very conflicting info as to whether a financial institution has to withhold from dividends paid on deposit accounts).

Thank you!

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#1164919 - 04/16/09 07:29 PM Re: Passports and Foreign Students Cat Woman
rlcarey Online
10K Club
rlcarey
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 83,227
Galveston, TX
Passport numbers or actual passports? Many banks will only take passports from NRAs. If the W-8 is properly completed, there are no withholding requirements.
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The opinions expressed here should not be construed to be those of my employer: PPDocs.com

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#1165156 - 04/16/09 10:48 PM Re: Passports and Foreign Students rlcarey
MagicCity Offline

Power Poster
MagicCity
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 3,003
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
We take passports as primary ID for NRAs.
We don't "validate" the passport - we just ensure that it is still a valid passport, i.e. check the expiry date.

We have NRAs complete W-8 BENs for all interest bearing accounts.

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#1165163 - 04/16/09 11:00 PM Re: Passports and Foreign Students Cat Woman
Elwood P. Dowd Offline
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Elwood P. Dowd
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 21,939
Next to Harvey
A passport number is acceptable for CIP:

(4) Identification number, which shall be:
(i) For a U.S. person, a taxpayer identification number; or
(ii) For a non-U.S. person, one or more of the following: a taxpayer identification number; passport number and country of issuance; alien identification card number; or number and country of issuance of any other government-issued document evidencing nationality or residence and bearing a photograph or similar safeguard.


There is no uniform way to validate a passport number beyond physically comparing it to the passport. You are not required to verify all four pieces of information you obtain.

The IRS considers payments made based on the time value of deposits as interest, not dividends. Payments of interest and dividends to NRAs are treated differently.

If an account is interest bearing, you will require a W8-BEN from each NRA owner regardless of whether they have an SSN. If you do not get one for each NRA owner, then you impose backup withholding. You do not get the form and also impose backup withholding.


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