TIN Required?

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.

What is the purpose of this LLC?

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.

Thanks John! That is exactly what I thought.

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.

I've asked the banker that very question and am hoping they simply mispoke and meant the company had no US based income!

It could be a shell, but it could also have been formed to do something specific like hold title to property.