IEIM402040 - Reportable Information: Tax Identification Number

Reportable Information: Tax Identification Number

The taxpayer identification number (TIN) is the unique identifier assigned to the Account Holder by the tax administration in the Account Holder’s jurisdiction of tax residence. It is a unique combination of letters and/or numbers used to identify an individual or entity for the purposes of administering the tax laws of that jurisdiction.

Any identifier assigned by a jurisdiction of source, for example, for identifying a person whose income has been subject to withholding tax at source, should not be reported.

Some jurisdictions do not issue a TIN and where that is the case there will be nothing to report unless they use other high integrity numbers with an equivalent level of identification. For individuals these include:

  • Social security number
  • National insurance number
  • Citizen or personal identification code or number
  • Resident registration number

For entities, jurisdictions may use a business/company registration code or number where no TIN has been issued.

Some jurisdictions that issue TINs have domestic law that does not require the collection of the TIN for domestic reporting purposes, Australia for example. In such cases the Reporting Financial Institution is not required to collect the TIN for those jurisdictions.

There are also limited circumstances in which residents of some jurisdictions that do issue TINs may nevertheless not have a TIN, for example individuals who have never worked in the jurisdiction and have never been provided with a TIN, and individuals who have moved to the jurisdiction and may not receive a TIN for several years after moving.

Information on the structure and form of TINs used by tax administrations, including those where domestic collection of the TIN is not required, has been published on the OECD website.

The TIN, or TIN equivalent, must be reported for all new accounts [see IEIM403140] where issued.

For pre-existing accounts [see IEIM402640] the TIN is reportable to the extent that it is already held in records maintained by the Reporting Financial Institution [see IEIM402300] or the Reporting Financial Institution is otherwise obliged to collect it.

For the CRS, where the TIN is not held in respect of pre-existing accounts the Reporting Financial Institution must use reasonable efforts to obtain it [see IEIM402320] by the end of the second calendar year following the year in which the accounts are identified as Reportable Accounts [see IEIM401520]. Not all jurisdictions issue a TIN, or functional equivalent, to all individuals or entities; where a TIN has not been issued to an individual or entity there is an exception from the requirement to report a TIN. If and when a jurisdiction starts issuing TINs the exception no longer applies and the TIN would be required to be reported if the Financial Institution obtains a self-certification that contains such a TIN, or otherwise obtains such a TIN.

As Reportable Persons may be resident in more than one jurisdiction they may have two or more TINs that the Financial Institution must report.

United Kingdom

For most individuals in the UK the TIN will be their National Insurance Number.

Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories

For Gibraltar the identifier to be reported for individuals is a social security number.

For Guernsey the identifier to be reported for individuals is a social security number.

For the Isle of Man the identifier to be reported for individuals is a national insurance number.

For Jersey the identifier to be reported for individuals is a social security number.

FATCA

The TIN to be reported for FATCA purposes is the US Federal Taxpayer Identification Number.

The TIN is a mandatory item for reporting for FATCA in respect of pre-existing accounts for the 2017 reporting year onwards. However in September 2017 the U.S. Internal Revenue Service published Notice 2017-46 relaxing this requirement https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-17-46.pdf

The Notice confirms that foreign financial institutions (FFIs) in Model 1 IGA jurisdictions (including the UK) will not be in significant non-compliance with an applicable IGA during 2017, 2018, and 2019 solely as a result of a failure to report U.S. TINs for preexisting accounts, provided the FFI reports the account holder’s date of birth, makes annual requests for the TIN, and searches its electronic records for missing U.S. TINs before reporting information on 2017.

In view of the IRS Notice and the fact that UK Financial Institutions may find it difficult to obtain TINs for all U.S. account holders, HMRC will not regard a failure by a UK Financial Institution to provide U.S. TINs in respect of pre-existing accounts during 2017, 2018 and 2019 as a failure to comply with the UK regulations provided that the requirements of the IRS Notice are met.

In October 2019 the IRS published FAQ3 on Reporting, giving further guidance on reporting TINS for 2020 and future reportable periods: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/frequently-asked-questions-faqs-fatca-compliance-legal#reporting

The IRS FAQ confirms that Financial Institutions are not required automatically to close accounts that do not contain a TIN.

The IRS FAQ also confirms that if a Financial Institution is unable to obtain a TIN, this will not automatically lead the IRS to conclude that there is significant non-compliance. Instead, the IRS will consult with HMRC so they can take account of valid reasons why TINs could not be obtained and the efforts made to collect them. To help with this HMRC will approach Financial Institutions on a case by case basis to gather those reasons and to evidence that the Financial Institution has adequate procedures in place to obtain TINs.

In 2021, in order to better understand the reasons why a Foreign Financial Institution (FFI) in a U.S. Model 1 IGA jurisdiction may not have been able to obtain a U.S. TIN, the IRS developed a series of codes that may be used by an FFI to populate the TIN field in circumstances where the TIN is not available, as an alternative to using nine zeros. The use of these codes is optional and does not mean that an FFI will not be at risk of being found significantly non-compliant due to a failure to report each required U.S. TIN. The IRS will take into account the facts and circumstances leading to the absence of the U.S. TIN, such as the reasons why the TIN could not be obtained, whether the FFI has adequate procedures in place to obtain TINs, and the efforts made by the FFI to obtain TINs.

The codes issued in 2021 are as follows:

  • 222222222 – Preexisting individual account with only U.S. indicia being a U.S. place of birth.

• 333333333 – New individual account that (1) has indicia of a U.S. place of birth, and (2) either:

(a) has a change in circumstances causing the self-certification originally obtained at account opening to be incorrect or
unreliable, and a new self-certification has not been obtained, or

(b) was below the threshold for documenting and reporting the account at the time of account opening and subsequently
exceeded the threshold, and a self-certification has not been obtained.

• 444444444 – Preexisting individual and entity account that (1) has U.S, indicia other than a U.S. place of birth, and (2) either:

(a) has a change in circumstances, causing the self-certification or other documentation originally obtained to be incorrect or
unreliable, and a new self-certification or other documentation has not been obtained, or

(b) was below the threshold for documenting and reporting the account at the time of account opening and subsequently
exceeded the threshold, and a self-certification or other documentation has not been obtained.

• 555555555 – New individual and entity account that has a U.S. indicia other than a U.S. place of birth, and (2) either:

(a) has a change in circumstances causing the self-certification or other documentation originally obtained to be incorrect or
unreliable, and a new self-certification or other documentation has not been obtained, or

(b) was below the threshold for documenting and reporting the account at the time of account opening and subsequently
exceeded the threshold, and a self-certification or other documentation has not been obtained.

  • 666666666 – Pre-existing entity account with account balance exceeding $1,000,000 held by a passive NFFE with respect to which no self-certifications have been obtained, and no U.S. indicia has been identified in relation to its controlling persons.

  • 777777777 - Pre-existing account where there is no TIN available and the account has been dormant or inactive, but remains above the reporting threshold, also known as ‘‘dormant account’’. The U.S. defines ‘‘dormant account’’ in U.S. Treasury Regulations §1.1471-4(d)(6)(ii).

The above codes may only be used by FFIs in jurisdictions with a U.S. Model 1 IGA.

Update January 2023

The IRS has recently issued Notice 2023-11 which provides reporting relief to Model 1 FFIs who have been unable to obtain U.S. TINs for their pre-existing accounts that are U.S. reportable accounts if they follow the procedures in the Notice. The notice can be found at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-23-11.pdf. The IRS has also published an update to FAQ6 on reporting. The FAQ includes updates to the TIN codes issued in 2021.

Model 1 IGA FFIs must use the newly updated codes for reporting in respect of calendar years 2023 and 2024 to be eligible for the relief. The updated codes are as follows:

  • 222222222 Pre-existing individual account with only U.S. indicia being a U.S. place of birth, other than an account reported under code 000222111. This code takes precedence if any other code (other than 000222111) could also be applicable.

  • 000222111 Pre-existing depository individual account with only U.S. indicia being a U.S. place of birth. Additionally, FFI must determine that the account holder is a resident of the jurisdiction where the account is maintained for AML and tax purposes. For reference, “depository account” has the meaning defined in the applicable Model 1 Intergovernmental Agreement (Model 1 IGA). This code takes precedence if any other code could also be applicable.

  • 333333333 New individual account that:

(1) has indicia of a U.S. place of birth, and
(2) either:

(a) has a change in circumstances causing the self-certification originally obtained at account opening to be incorrect or unreliable, and a new self-certification has not been obtained, or

(b) was below the threshold for documenting and reporting the account at the time of account opening and subsequently exceeded the threshold, and a self-certification has not been obtained.

  • 444444444 Pre-existing individual or entity account that:

(1) has U.S. indicia other than a U.S. place of birth, and
(2) either:

(a) has a change in circumstances that either results in one or more U.S. indicia being associated with the account or causes a self-certification or other documentation originally obtained to be incorrect or unreliable, and a valid self-certification or other documentation has not been obtained subsequent to the change in circumstances, or

(b) was below the threshold for documenting and reporting the account on the determination date provided in the applicable Model 1 IGA and subsequently exceeded the threshold, and a self-certification or other documentation has not been obtained.

  • 555555555 New individual or entity account that:

(1) has a U.S. indicia other than a U.S. place of birth, and
(2) either:

(a) has a change in circumstances causing the self-certification or other documentation originally obtained to be incorrect or unreliable, and a new self-certification or other documentation has not been obtained, or

(b) was below the threshold for documenting and reporting the account at the time of account opening and subsequently exceeded the threshold, and a self-certification or other documentation has not been obtained.

  • 666666666 Preexisting entity account held by a passive NFFE with one or more controlling persons with respect to which self-certifications have not been obtained, and no U.S. indicia have been identified in relation to any controlling persons.

  • 777777777 Dormant Accounts – For pre-existing accounts where there is no TIN available and the account has been dormant or inactive, but remains above the reporting threshold, also known as a “dormant account.” A “dormant account” is one that meets the definition set out in U.S. Treasury Regulations §1.1471-4(d)(6)(ii) and had had no financial activity for three years, except for the posting of interest. If an account could be classified into multiple TIN codes, the other code takes precedence.

  • 999999999 Any account for which the FFI cannot obtain a TIN and none of the other TIN codes would be applicable. The use of this code indicates that an FFI has completed its review of accounts without U.S. TINs and has in good faith applied TIN codes to records when applicable.

Reporting to HMRC in respect of calendar year 2022, due by 31 May 2023, is considered to be a transitional year. FFIs are encouraged to use either the TIN codes issued in 2021 or the updated TIN codes issued in 2023 to assist the IRS in understanding the reasons for missing U.S. TINs.

For reporting in respect of the calendar years up to and including 2022, it is still possible to report an account without a TIN to HMRC by entering nine zeros in the TIN field.