Home | Blog | New IRS Draft Form W-8BEN-E for Entities

New IRS Draft Form W-8BEN-E for Entities

As I was cycling into work the other day, I, unfortunately, was thinking about the new IRS Form W-8BEN-E  (I do this sometimes) and a vision of Alex Trebeck popped into my head.  Alex said to me: “Mr. Dean, you are on Final Jeopardy and you are left with the category – US Taxation – one of the hardest categories we have here on Jeopardy.”  Alex went on with the Answer in Jeopardy fashion: “a Luxemburg investment fund which includes both U.S. and foreign investors.”  He then showed me a W-8BEN-ECertificate of Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding (Entities)” complete with its 24 possible status categories under FATCA.  “Registered Deemed Compliant FFI”  – dodeedodo – “Entity Wholly Owned by Exempt Beneficial Owners” – dodeedodo – “Active NFFE,” “Passive NFFE”.

As my head swirled with these 24 choiceshonk – Alex was back telling me time was up as I realized that I did not have enough information on the Luxemburg entity to make a reasoned choice.

Unfortunately, the tax world is not a television game show and making the wrong choices does not mean you don’t get a prize; making wrong choices means you may get penalized.  So as I look over this proposed Form W-8BEN-E and think about the whole wide world of foreign financial institutions (FFIs) and non-financial foreign entities (NFFEs) who will be responsible for having correct versions of these Forms on file, I can’t help but think that IRS may be overestimating the world’s capacity to make sense of their categories of FFIs, NFFEs and exempt entities, or at least to make sense of them in a world of finite time and resources.

Because after all its not only on Jeopardy that the dodeedodo finally comes to an end.

Please get touch if you have any questions: g.dean@ustaxfs.com

Here to Help

Here to Help

Contact one of our specialists

London
USTAXFS
3 Harbour Exchange Square
London E14 9GE
United Kingdom

T: +44 20 7357 8220

F: +44 20 7357 8225

Email Us

Zurich
USTAXFS
Brandschenkestrasse 20
CH-8001 Zurich
Switzerland

T: +41 44 387 8070

F: +41 44 387 8079

Email Us

Geneva
USTAXFS
Rue de-Candolle 19
CH 1205
Geneva
Switzerland

T: +41 22 700 2500

F: +41 22 700 2526

Email Us

Middle East, Asia and the Americas
US Tax & Financial Services GmbH
Löwenstrasse 28
PO Box 1367
CH-8021 Zurich
Switzerland

T: +41 44 387 8070

F: +41 44 387 8079

Email Us

Nordics
USTAXFS / MAJATTORNEY
Norra Skeppsbron 5B
SE 803 10, GAVLE
Sweden

T: +46 26 18 82 22

M: +46 70 61 88 016

Email Us

Read Services in :EnglishFrenchItalianGerman