IEIM902520 - Determination of Seller Residence

The due diligence requirements also include the determination of the jurisdiction of residence of a Seller so that the reported information about that Seller is sent to the appropriate tax authority. The Reporting Platform Operator (RPO) must usually consider a Seller to be resident in the jurisdiction in which the Seller’s primary address is found.

If a Seller is resident in more than one country, there will be only one primary address so the RPO should be able to determine the Seller’s jurisdiction residence based on that primary address.

Where a Seller moves to a different country and changes their primary address during a Reportable Period, the RPO should base the determination of residence on the most recent primary address, which will be the one at the end of the Reportable Period. This should also be the reported primary address (see 902320).

If the Seller is resident for tax purposes in a different jurisdiction to the one based on their primary address, the RPO must nonetheless determine (and report) the Seller’s residence on the basis of their primary address, and not their tax residence. This avoids RPOs having to determine a Seller’s tax residence, which may not be straightforward or may not be known by the Seller.

The only exception to the usual rule is where the RPO has relied on a Government Verification Service (GVS) to ascertain the identity and tax residence of a Seller (see 902550). In such cases, the RPO must consider the Seller to be resident in the jurisdiction whose GVS was used.