Dazey

I heard back in a day or two from them, so it can't hurt to write now in case no one answers you here. I just found a number, too:

"You can get answers to questions concerning the FBAR form by calling 800-800-2877 and selecting option 2."

robin1234

You have a SSN - so wouldn't you just use that?

nyc123

yes, i still have my ssn, although i moved away from the us around 10 years ago.

but as i wrote before, i don't file taxes in the us anymore and on the form they ask under part III item 25 and part IV item 35 for the taxpayer id number.

thanks!

robin1234

For most filers, "taxpayer id number" means SSN. The reason they don't say "SSN" is that there are a minority of filers who don't have a SSN, so they have to get a taxpayer id number assigned to them. In your case, no problem, you have the SSN, so you would use it. The fact that you don't actually file taxes doesn't matter.. main thing is for you, to accurately fill out the FBAR and get it in to them, then you've fulfilled your obligation.

(Obviously this is just my opinion; if any other folks have more authoritative information, I'm sure they will post.)

robin1234

I should add that this question and similar come up quite often in the US-UK Tax section of the UK Yankee Forums; so you could browse or search through the threads there...
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?board=11.0

nyc123

i've tried calling the 1-800 number, the only thing i've got was voice mail telling me - i'm away until june 20 or i'm currently away from my desk or to call again the 1-800 number...

so no luck so far!

thanks for the link to the other forum - so far i wasn't lucky with finding information regarding should i put my ssn on the fbar or not?

nyc123

two more questions just came up:

1. do you report regular credit cards?

2. i just saw, that we have a debit card issued by visa - which is linked to an account that we have reported, but the debit card, since we never use it, we didn't report.
do i have to report this debit card?

thanks again!

mandpete

We have two joint endowment policies which are due to mature next year and have just now realized we may have to disclose these as they both have a cash surrender value.

My husband (aged 46) also has a stakeholder pension plan and a personal pension plan, he hasn't made any contributions to either of these pensions since 2002. He cannot withdraw from either of these for a considerable time.

We have a very small amount in a current account which is used solely for paying endowment contributions.

We haven't earned any income/interest from any of these accounts and rightly or wrongly assumed we didn't have to disclose these on previous tax returns.

Can anyone confirm whether we need to disclose the endowments and pensions?

Dazey

Your SSN is your tax id number. I thought in the original question you were trying to ascertain whether or not you should even file on the FBAR with your spouse rather than if you should use your SSN.

It's your number assigned to you, no one else has it, so I don't know why you wouldn't use it to file? If I were you I'd do some more googling and email the FBAR addy I posted if you want more certainty.

nyc123

my husband is the us citizen, so he has to file the fbar. i'm not a us citizen, nor do i have a green card and we're not living in the us anymore - so i don't have to file the fbar.

the question was for the joint accounts, part III of the form - what put under item 25 - "Taxpayer Identification Number of principal joint owner, if known"

under item 26 and 27 - name of principal joint owner - that would be me, that much is clear.

thanks!

ian-mstm

No.


No.

Ian

robin1234

Couple of people, me included, have answered your question..? Not sure what you want now. And if you dig deep, using the "search topic" feature in the US UK Tax forum at UK Yankee there are several people asking similar or related questions.

Dazey

Even though you're not a citizen, since you do have an SSN, if it were me I would list that as your taxpayer ID as that is basically what they want (the only reason they don't just ask for an SSN is to cover those who don't have one).

If you want confirmation from an official source to put your mind at ease about this, I'd go ahead and email the IRS and scour their FAQs to see if you can find where they address your specific situation. I'm a worrywart, so I can imagine doing this if I felt unsure. You might also post a question on the UK-Yankees board under the Tax section of the board to see if anyone is in your exact situation. Good luck!

Sheepdip

Would be interested in the answer to this too.

meauxna

You are the 'principal joint owner', your Taxpayer Identification Number is your Social Security Number and it is 'known'; #25 IS your SSN.