Foreign Customer Question

We are in an rural area and have not ever had this particular problem before. We have a couple wanting to open up a non-interest bearing account. The couple lives full time in Australia and they do not have US tax ID numbers. They travel to the US frequently and visit our city often. Do I need anything special to open the account? I have copies of their passports and Drivers Licenses. Do I have to fill out the W-8 form even if they are in a non-interest bearing account?

Thank For the Help.

The W8 is for reporting interest, so you would not need it completed.

Your requirements for identification are dictated by the terms of your CIP. Make certain that it covers this scenario. If it does not, make certain that one of your predecessors did not omit the option on purpose. A decision could have been made not to open accounts for non U.S. persons and the simplest way to communicate that would be to leave it out of the CIP.

If you do open the account, you should be able to identify them as "non U.S. persons" if you are asked for a list of this category of customer in an expanded BSA examination.

I suggest that you do not open an interest bearing account for these or any other non U.S. persons. As Magic City notes, that would trigger a W-8 requirement and it would also trigger information reporting on a form 1042S. You would have to know as much about IRS compliance to bank one foreign customer as you would if you banked 100 foreign customers...

They travel to the US frequently and visit our city often.

If they travel to the US more frequently than you city why would they wish to bank with you vs one of the larger banks with more branches in the US? (hypothetical question on my end but you may wish to know)