Form 1042 – IRS Makes Some Important Changes

Last month IRS made changes to the instructions of Form 1042 – Annual Withholding Tax Return for US Source Income of Foreign Persons. As the readers may recall, IRS made some changes to Form 1042 earlier to coincide with the newly issued FATCA regulations under Chapter 3 and 4. The updated instructions were released to assist the withholding agents in preparing the Form. It is pertinent to note that although 2014 and 2015 versions of the Form are identical, IRS has made certain parts of the Form which were optional in 2014, as mandatory for 2015.

Following parts of Form 1042-S are accordingly mandatory for 2015:

• Withholding agent’s Chapter 3 and 4 status code must be entered on page 1 under the withholding agent’s name.

• Reconciliation of U.S. source fixed or determinable annual or periodical (FDAP) income in section 2 of Form 1042 must be completed. This schedule reconciles the total U.S. source FDAP income subject to withholding under Chapter 4 with the total amount of U.S. source FDAP income reported on Forms 1042-S.

• It is required that withholding agents now summarize the reasons why the amounts were not subject to Chapter 4 withholding such as amounts paid with respect to grandfathered obligations, amounts paid that were characterized as excluded nonfinancial payments, etc.).

Original Post By:  Pallav Acharya

 

Certified Public Accountant, Chartered Accountant and Chartered Global Management Accountant with a niche in international tax area since 1985. Specialties include cross border tax consultation and compliance for business and individual clients. Frequent speaker, author of articles on international tax topics. Founder- owner of boutique firm specializing in international tax planning and compliance.

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn 

Subscribe to TaxConnections Blog

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.