my brother is a nonresident alien. has a bank account in u.s bearing interest. interest income which is exempt in part to irs regs and treaty. he recently became ill and requested me, a u.s. citizen, to become joint owner of his account. all interest income is to be used by him. my question is are there tax consequences to me regarding joint ownership of the account. If so, is there an alternative to holding the principal.

JuLee

im not sure what the correct answer is but I work in a credit union and usually, all interests are reported under the primary acct holder, nothing under the joint. if a minor has an account, whoever is claiming the minor would report it under their tax. hope your brother gets better.

AtlantaTaxExpert

JuLee is correct. If your borther's ITIN is on the account, then your brother is responsible for the taxes, which, in his case, is ZERO!

delite

I believe the correct answer to my inquiry, re; income resident and non resident alien. If one of the co-owners of an account is a foreign non resident alien and the other a U.S. citizen, the 1099 and income will be reported by the U.S. ciitzen. Form w-8 (IRS) to be filled out by the non resident clearly states this. Further banking officers confirm this. If 2 U.S. ciitzens jointly own an account, the first name on the account receives the 1099; if nonresidents aliens, no 1099 and not taxable.

AtlantaTaxExpert

Delite is correct; the research is solid (something I failed to do).

dlc

Actually, the IRS would look more to who "owns" the account. If you are joint owners, you are jointly responsible whether the 1099's reflect that or not. But, if you are merely a name on the account for convenience and he retains ownership, then there is no tax consequence to you. Best to put that in writing before you add your name, just in case you ever need it.
Adding your name as an owner could also have gift tax implications.