We are buying a loan participation; the loan is to a US registered LLC and being purchased from a foreign Bank.

The LLC is registered in Delaware but it owner (parent) is in Korea. We asked for either the LLC’s TIN or W-9 and were told that they do not have one as they are a disregarded entity.

My questions:
1) Since e this is a participation purchased and under the BSA it is not our customer, do we need a TIN/W-9?
2) Assuming we were a direct lender, would the answer be different?

Thank you,
Paul (BC78a!)

I think somebody is blowing smoke and you need to get with a IRS tax specialist. But I did not think that a foreign owned entity could actually be a disregarded entity and were considered a separate corporation for tax purposes and thus would need an EIN. You might want to read:

https://www.llcuniversity.com/irs/form-5472-foreign-owned-llc/

or this:

https://www.bdo.com/insights/tax/international-tax/international-tax-alert-december-2016-(3)

Thank yo so much.

Paul