US Taxes: What You Need To Know About Your ITIN
Living in a different country as an expat or a foreign citizen may get stressful when you are supposed to meet certain obligations. It may look easy at the start, but may get complex if you don’t keep a track of the ongoing regulations. For example: maintaining your ‘Individual Taxpayer Identification Number’ (ITIN).
Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
ITIN is a tax processing number issued by the Internal Revenue Service.
It is a unique number issued to persons not eligible for a social security number (SSN). All residents or non-residents in the US who do not have an SSN need to apply for an ITIN for the processing of tax returns. Your ITIN is subjected to yearly renewal according to the IRS release.
CP-48 Notice
When your ITIN is about to expire you will be notified. IRS will send out a CP-48 notice for taxpayers who have filed their 2017, 2018 and 2019 tax returns, letting them know that their ITIN will expire this year. In case you have not received the notice but you know that your ITIN is about to expire, you should still go ahead with the ITIN renewal process.
What ITINs have expired before 2021?
We have summarised the IRS release from 9 November 2020 outlining the ITIN’s that need renewal:
- All ITINs not used on a federal tax return at least once in the last three years are expired on 31 December 2020;
- ITINs issued before 2013 with middle digits of 88 (Example: (9XX-88-XXXX) are expired at the end of 2020;
- Those with middle digits 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98 or 99, that were assigned before 2013 and have not already been renewed, will have also expire at the end of 2020; and
- ITINs with middle digits 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, or 87 that expired in 2016, 2017, 2018, or 2019 can also be renewed.
We suggest that you renew your ITINs before filing your 2020 tax return. This will avoid any potential delays in the processing of your tax returns.
Renewal Process
If you determine that your ITINs have expired or are about to expire, follow the below steps:
- Complete and submit form W-7 – Application for IRS Individual taxpayer identification number;
- Include the required documents listed by the IRS. There are 13 documents that will be accepted by the IRS. Few among them are – Passport, US/Foreign driver’s license, National ID Card, Visa etc;
- The application needs to be mailed or submitted, which is explained on the IRS website;
- IRS generally takes up to 11 weeks to process your application.
Our US Tax professionals can assist you in complying with these rules.
Send us a message if you need any help; we ensure an accurate application will be submitted.
