Person Of Interest (2011) Italiano Sottotitoli
This publication is for withholding agents who pay income to foreign persons, including nonresident aliens, foreign corporations, foreign partnerships, foreign trusts, foreign estates, foreign governments, and international organizations. Specifically, it describes the persons responsible for withholding (withholding agents), the types of income subject to withholding, and the information return and tax return filing obligations of withholding agents. In addition to discussing the rules that apply generally to payments of U.S. source income to foreign persons, it also contains sections on the withholding that applies to the disposition of U.S. real property interests (USRPI) and the withholding by partnerships on income effectively connected with the active conduct of a U.S. trade or business.
Person of Interest (2011) Italiano sottotitoli
As a withholding agent, you are personally liable for any tax required to be withheld. This liability is independent of the tax liability of the foreign person to whom the payment is made. If you fail to withhold and the foreign payee fails to satisfy its U.S. tax liability, then both you and the foreign person are liable for tax, as well as interest and any applicable penalties.
You make a payment of interest to a foreign bank that is an NQI. Assume the payment is subject to chapter 3 withholding but is not a withholdable payment. The bank gives you a Form W-8IMY, the Forms W-8BEN of two foreign persons, and a Form W-9 from a U.S. person for whom the bank is collecting the payments. The bank also associates with its Form W-8IMY a withholding statement on which it allocates the interest payment and provides all other information required to be on the withholding statement. The account holders are the payees of the interest payment. You should report the part of the interest paid to the two foreign persons on Forms 1042-S and the part paid to the U.S. person on Form 1099-INT. You do not need to establish the chapter 4 status of the NQI because the payment is not a withholdable payment.
If you make a withholdable payment, you must determine the chapter 4 status of payees, beneficial owners, intermediaries, and flow-through entities receiving the payment to the extent required for chapter 4 purposes. You must also determine the chapter 4 status of persons that own an interest in an entity receiving a withholdable payment that you treat as an owner-documented FFI, provided you are either a U.S. financial institution, participating FFI, or reporting Model 1 FFI. To establish chapter 4 status, you must generally obtain a valid withholding certificate or documentary evidence that you can reliably associate with the payment. If you make a payment to a passive NFFE, you must obtain either a certification that the NFFE does not have any substantial U.S. owners, or the name, address, and TIN of each substantial U.S. owner of the NFFE (or, under an applicable IGA, each controlling person that is a specified U.S. person).
A WP must report its U.S. partners on Schedule K-1 to the extent required under the WP agreement. If the WP is an FFI, it is also required to report each of its U.S. accounts (or U.S. reportable accounts if a reporting Model 1 FFI) on Form 8966 consistent with its chapter 4 requirements or the requirements of an IGA. If the WP is an NFFE, the WP must file Form 8966 to report any partner that is an NFFE (other than an excepted NFFE) with one or more substantial U.S. owners (or, under an applicable IGA, controlling persons that are specified U.S. persons) if the NFFE is the beneficial owner of a withholdable payment received by the WP. The WP must also file a Form 8966 to report withholdable payments made to a pass-through partner for which the WP acts under the WP agreement that provides information on an account holder (or interest holder) that is an NFFE (other than an excepted NFFE) with one or more substantial U.S. owners (or, under an applicable IGA, controlling persons that are specified U.S. persons) and that is the beneficial owner of the withholdable payment received by the WP, unless the pass-through partner certifies to the WP that it is reporting on the account holder (or interest holder) pursuant to its U.S. account reporting requirements. The preceding sentence applies with respect to a pass-through partner to which the WP applies the agency option or which has partners, beneficiaries, or owners that are indirect partners of the WP.
The presumption rules apply to determine the status of the person you pay as a U.S. or foreign person and other relevant characteristics, such as whether the payee is a beneficial owner or intermediary, and whether the payee is an individual, corporation, partnership, or trust. In the case of a withholdable payment you make to an entity, you must apply the presumption rules for chapter 4 purposes to treat the entity as a nonparticipating FFI when you cannot reliably associate the payment with documentation permitted for chapter 4 purposes. You are not permitted to apply a reduced rate of chapter 3 withholding based on a payee's presumed status if documentation is required to establish a reduced rate of withholding. For example, if the payee of interest is presumed to be a foreign person, you may not apply the portfolio interest exception or a reduced rate of withholding under a tax treaty since both exceptions require documentation.
Payments to certain persons and payments of contingent interest do not qualify as portfolio interest. You must withhold at the statutory rate on such payments unless some other exception, such as a treaty provision, applies and withholding under chapter 4 does not apply.
Interest paid to a foreign person that owns 10% or more of the total combined voting power of all classes of stock of a corporation, or 10% or more of the capital or profits interest in a partnership, that issued the obligation on which the interest is paid is not portfolio interest. To determine 10% ownership, see Regulations section 1.871-14(g).
A treaty may reduce the rate of withholding on dividends from that which generally applies under the treaty if the shareholder owns a certain percentage of the voting stock of the corporation when withholding under chapter 4 does not apply. In most cases, this preferential rate applies only if the shareholder directly owns the required percentage, although some treaties permit the percentage to be met by direct or indirect ownership. The preferential rate may apply to the payment of a deemed dividend under section 304(a)(1). Under some treaties, the preferential rate for dividends qualifying for the direct dividend rate applies only if no more than a certain percentage of the paying corporation's gross income for a certain period consists of dividends and interest other than dividends and interest from subsidiaries or from the active conduct of a banking, financing, or insurance business. A foreign person should claim the direct dividend rate by filing the appropriate Form W-8.
If you are a person responsible for withholding, accounting for, or depositing or paying employment taxes, and willfully fail to do so, you can be held liable for a penalty equal to the full amount of the unpaid trust fund tax, plus interest. A responsible person for this purpose can be an officer of a corporation, a partner, a sole proprietor, or an employee of any form of business. A trustee or agent with authority over the funds of the business can also be held responsible for the penalty.
A transferee, including a partnership when the partner is a distributee, is not required to withhold on the transfer of a non-PTP interest if it properly relies on one of the following six certifications, the requirements of which are more fully described in the referenced regulations. A transferee may not rely on a certification if it has actual knowledge that the certification is incorrect or unreliable. A partnership that is a transferee because it makes a distribution may not rely on its books and records if it knows, or has reason to know, that the information is incorrect or unreliable. A certification must provide the name and address of the person providing it, be signed under penalties of perjury, and generally include the taxpayer identification number of the transferor. See Regulations sections 1.1446(f)-1(c)(2)(i) and 1.1446(f)-2(b)(1). Also, separate rules apply if the transfer results from a partnership distribution. Only the certification in exception six must be submitted to the IRS.
A USRPI is an interest, other than as a creditor, in real property (including an interest in a mine, well, or other natural deposit) located in the United States or the USVI, as well as certain personal property that is associated with the use of real property (such as farming machinery). It also means any interest, other than as a creditor, in any domestic corporation unless it is established that the corporation was at no time a U.S. real property holding corporation during the shorter of the period during which the interest was held, or the 5-year period ending on the date of disposition (applicable periods). An interest in a corporation is not a USRPI if:
If, at any time during the calendar year, any class of stock of a domestic corporation is regularly traded on an established securities market, an interest in such corporation will not be treated as a USRPI if the beneficial owner did not own more than 5% of the total fair market value of that class of interests, or 10% of the total fair market value of that class of interests in the case of a REIT, at any time during the shorter of the applicable periods. Certain constructive ownership rules apply for purposes of determining whether any person meets the above ownership threshold of any class of stock. See section 897(c)(6)(C) for more information on the constructive ownership rules.
The sale of an interest in a domestically controlled QIE is not the sale of a USRPI. The entity is domestically controlled if at all times during the testing period less than 50% in value of its stock was held, directly or indirectly, by foreign persons. The testing period is the shorter of (a) the 5-year period ending on the date of disposition, or (b) the period during which the entity was in existence. 041b061a72