Tax Preparation for Immigrants – The Rules Change Again…

Just as quickly as we update our ITIN materials and guidelines the ITIN policy office within the IRS has changed their stance yet again!

Just released: ITINs (Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers) will expire after 5 consecutive years of non-filing use.  This is a change from the services’ previously stated policy of automatically expiring ITINs after 5 years, whether or not they were being used for legitimate tax filing purposes.  This change in stance significantly reduces residual in-office application and re-application paperwork processing for those of us serving taxpayers in immigrant communities.

• To allow for information to trickle down to taxpayers and tax professionals, ITINs will not start to expire until 2016, no matter what their filing history.
• This new policy applied to all ITINs, no matter when they were initially issued
• ITINs will remain active and in effect as long as the taxpayer continues to use them to file tax returns.
• To reapply for an ITIN if a clients ever does become deactivated due to 5 years of non-use, use form W7 in the same fashion as you would an initial ITIN application.

For the full story from the IRS visit: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Unused-ITINS-to-Expire-After-Five-Years;-New-Uniform-Policy-Eases-Burden-on-Taxpayers,-Protects-ITIN-Integrity