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Some providers sell founders abroad an ITIN as if it were a step in forming a company. It isn't. An ITIN is a personal tax number for people who have to file, or be reported on, a US tax return and can't get a Social Security Number.
| You want to | ITIN needed? |
|---|---|
| Form the LLC | No |
| Get the company's EIN | No: the SS-4 takes "foreign". The EIN guide explains |
| Open Mercury or Wise Business | No: your passport is enough |
| File Form 5472 with the pro forma 1120 | No: it takes your own country's tax number |
| Claim a treaty rate on a W-8BEN | Only if your country gives you no tax number |
| File Form 1040-NR for US business income | Yes |
| Be a partner in a partnership with US business income | Yes: it withholds and reports against your number |
| Own US property, and be taxed on the net rent or cut the withholding on a sale | Yes |
| Open an account at a bank that insists, as some branch banks do | Yes, for that bank. Mercury and Relay take a passport number |
You apply on Form W-7, with proof of identity and foreign status, which for most people means a passport. The IRS wants either the original passport, posted to its office in Austin, Texas and returned afterwards, or a copy certified by the agency that issued it. A Certifying Acceptance Agent can also check your original passport and send the application without it. The application usually has to go with the tax return that needs the number, unless one of the IRS's listed exceptions applies, which is why applying just in case often fails. The IRS says to allow seven weeks, or nine to eleven weeks in the busy season or when you apply from abroad.
An ITIN that isn't used on a federal tax return for three tax years in a row expires on 31 December after the third year. If you need it again, you renew it on Form W-7 before filing the return that uses it. An ITIN applied for "just in case" and never used simply lapses.
An ITIN doesn't speed up an EIN, make you a US person, give you any right to work, or open a bank account on its own. It's a number for tax returns. If nobody has asked you for a US return, you probably don't need one.
Sources
Checked by Saais Patel against these official pages.
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