Originally Posted by oregon woodsmoke

Evy, I am a US citizen, so have a SS # so don't need a taxpayer's number. All I know about it is that friends from Britain who were buying a vacation home here were told by my bank that it was no problem. They'd open a bank account for them and get them the taxpayer's number. I didn't see what documents they had to provide, but I know they opened the account before they bought the property (which would make sense, you have to have an account to wire your money to, in order to be able to pay for the property you purchased.) I also suspect that they had to prove they were in the country legally, which would involve showijng your passport and visa (but I am guessing)

There are a great many foreign investors in the USA, so the system is set up to deal with it. And by the way, once you have a specific number of dollars invested, you are then eligible for an investor's visa.

If you are dealing with a legitimate firm, any payments you receive will be held in escrow for you. I would expect payments to be dispursed with just a copy of the application for the number. But worst case, the money should be held in escrow.

The reason you need the taxpayer's number is that there is usually withholding tax from any money you receive, at the time you receive it, and there has to be an account to pay it into, or at a minimum to report it to. However, those of us in the USA very rarely pay any income tax on real estate investments because of the structure of the income tax and the deductions we are permitted to take off the top before we have to pay income tax on what is left.

Note: there are several types of "banks" in the USA. I suggest that you deal with one that has the word "Bank" in the name, because banks are the only institutions that can deal in foreign currency exchange.

Other institutions that act just like banks are 'savings and loans" and "credit unions", both a very good type to deal with for what they are good at. I'd stay away from anything called a "finance company".

Suggestion: the IRS usually has a page of explanation with each form, and the form should llist wjhat has to be provided with the form. If you download the form, it should tell you what you need.