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#1033616 - 09/03/08 04:44 PM TIN Required?
SARempress Offline
Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 37
Deep in the Heart of Texas
Our bank has been contacted by an attorney who would like to open an account for a U.S. organized LLC owned solely by a foreign person. He has opined that a TIN is not required under IRS rules since the company does not have business income. IRS rules aside, my opinion is that in order to open a bank account, CIP rules require a TIN since the business meets the definition of a US person. Does anyone have any information that would make this untrue? I could not locate any guidance from FinCEN.

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#1033625 - 09/03/08 04:47 PM Re: TIN Required? SARempress
BrendaC Offline
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BrendaC
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,029
Sweet Home AL
What is the purpose of this LLC?
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#1033679 - 09/03/08 05:19 PM Re: TIN Required? BrendaC
John Burnett Offline
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John Burnett
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,086
Cape Cod
Regardless of the purpose of the LLC, if it is organized under the laws of the United States or of any of the States, it is a U.S. Person as noted by SARempress. As a U.S. Person, it cannot open a bank account without a TIN (or providing documentation that it has applied for one, if the bank's CIP will permit it).

The attorney's opinion notwithstanding, there are no exceptions to that rule.
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#1033725 - 09/03/08 05:42 PM Re: TIN Required? John Burnett
SARempress Offline
Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 37
Deep in the Heart of Texas
Thanks John! That is exactly what I thought.

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#1033732 - 09/03/08 05:52 PM Re: TIN Required? SARempress
BrendaC Offline
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BrendaC
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,029
Sweet Home AL
I was curious why an organization was formed that had no income (not just no US based income--no business income). Are they intentionally creating some type of shell business? There could be other AML implications here worth following up on.
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Life without Jesus is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point.

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#1033741 - 09/03/08 06:01 PM Re: TIN Required? BrendaC
SARempress Offline
Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 37
Deep in the Heart of Texas
I've asked the banker that very question and am hoping they simply mispoke and meant the company had no US based income!

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#1034013 - 09/03/08 08:20 PM Re: TIN Required? SARempress
Ted Dreyer Offline
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Ted Dreyer
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 2,245
It could be a shell, but it could also have been formed to do something specific like hold title to property.

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