Hi.

I am attempting to help someone obtain an ITIN. He lives in Holland. (He has no income inside the U.S. to report yet.) He has written music that will air in the U.S. and generate royalty money. To get the royalty payments, he must have an account with a royalty collection company like BMI or ASCAP. However, BMI won't setup an account without an ITIN.

We have followed BMI's instructions for obtaining an ITIN and have been rejected twice now by the IRS. I'm convinced we've been checking the wrong boxes (so far A and B). I've called the IRS and gotten conflicting info about what to do. Unfortunately, the rejections from the IRS are so vague... and they don't start a case number that you can follow up on... argh...

I've looked at the W7 instructions as carefully as I can now and along with another IRS agent on the phone yesterday we came to the conclusion that we should check box H and list Exception 1. The royalty money is all passive income.

We have a proper notarized Passport copy, BMI furnished a letter saying that he needs an ITIN, and I have written a letter saying that he wrote music for us and needs an ITIN.

Does box H and Exception 1 sound like the way to go? It's tough because it takes 4 weeks to find out what happens each time...

Thanks in advance.
-gabe

Yes, Box H and Exception #1 is the way to go, In my opinion!

Thanks for the quick reply. We'll give it another shot and hopefully the third time will be the charm...

Cheers.
-gabe

Glad to help!

Hi.

I just wanted to check in here and let anyone who is interested know that we found out yesterday that we were successful in obtaining the Tax ID# for the guy in Holland! This will ultimately allow us to obtain an account with BMI.

So, it looks like checking Box H and listing Exception 1 is the way to go... Yay! It's been a long frustrating process of getting wrong information and multiple rejections and sketchy info from the IRS, but it finally worked out.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers.
-gabe

Glad to help!