IRS Acceptance Agents No Longer Will Be Situated Outside U.S. Borders

John Dundon

According to Sharon Bradley, Manager of the IRS’ ITIN Policy Section in the Atlanta, GA Service Center, Section 203 of the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act), Pub. L. 114-113, div. Q, enacted on December 18, 2015, modified Section 6109 of the Internal Revenue Code and resulted in significant changes to the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) program.

Under the PATH Act, an applicant who resides outside of the United States may submit their Form W-7 application by mail or to an employee of the Internal Revenue Service or a designee of the Secretary at a United States diplomatic mission or consular post. Currently, all IRS employees authorized to review and accept applications are located in the United States.

Based on the aforementioned information, IRS will implement the new provision on January 1, 2017, which will eliminate the need for Certifying Acceptance Agents outside of the United States.

As a result, the IRS is exercising its authority under both the terms of the agreement and Revenue Procedure 2006-10 to terminate Acceptance Agent Agreements of organizations that are operating in foreign countries.

Impacted organizations will be issued written notification by mail. If you have any questions concerning this matter, you can send an email to ITINProgramOffice@irs.gov.

Enrolled with the United States Treasury Department to practice before the IRS, governed by rules stipulated in United States Treasury Circular 230. As a Federally Authorized Tax Practitioner and a tax appeals specialist my Enrolled Agent License #85353 is issued by the United States Treasury. With this license I work for U.S. taxpayers everywhere to resolve tax matters and de-escalate stress about taxes or tax disputes for individuals and corporations with federal and state issues.

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6 comments on “IRS Acceptance Agents No Longer Will Be Situated Outside U.S. Borders

  • Does this mean an overseas located individual will not longer have to send in their original passport, or a certified copy from the passport office? The UK is a problem.

    • As best that I can tell presently, US Taxpayers situated outside the US in need of an ITIN will now be obligated to mail their ORIGINAL substantiating documentation to a US based Certifying Acceptance Agent (CAA). With that documentation the US based can then interview you via video conference to confirm authenticity, sign & file IRS Form W7-COA and will then be obligated to mail the original documentation back to the US Taxpayer abroad. Ridiculous, draconian, archaic, outright STUPID!

  • I don’t see how this eliminates the need for CAA’s abroad. I have only seen a few people who prepared the W-7 properly themselves and they are all confused by the process. A CAA goes far beyond just reviewing the documents.

  • Eliminating CAAs outside of the US is going to create a big problem for those outside the US to obtain ITINs.

    As a CAA in Canada I can attest to the lack of understanding of what it required to apply for an ITIN. By eliminating CAAs outside the US the IRS will be inundated with incorrect ITIN applications. Which will result in rejected applications and frustrated taxpayers.

    Simply designated employees in embassies or consulates certainly does not eliminate the need for CAAs outside the US. In Canada there is one embassy and 7 consulates all located in major cities. Now individuals will have to travel to a consulate in order to present their documents to a designated employee. Whereas up to now they could forward documents to a CAA and have a video interview. No one is going to mail their passport to a consulate any more than they will mail it to the IRS in Austin, TX.

    Very short sighted and poorly thought out plan.

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