How to report foreign interest income without a FEIN?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 8, 2025
4 replies
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I earned interest income from a CD in a foreign bank account.

1. How do I report it properly on my tax return?

2. How do I claim the foreign tax credit regarding the taxes I paid in this country related to this income?

I tried to enter this income as a 1099-INT, however, the system won't accept it unless I enter a FEIN. This bank is outside the US and doesn't have a FEIN. I read multiple posts on this topic, but nobody seems to have found a satisfying solution. Just entering 11-1111111 or 99-999999 is not acceptable.

Best answer by chag2020

I need an answer to my question: how to report foreign interest income without a FEIN. Please review my original post. Does anybody else have the solution?

I called TurboTax support this morning and the agent was very helpful. Foreign interest income needs to be reported under Less Common Income --> Miscellaneous Income --> Other reportable income. The agent recommended to enter the net interest amount rather than reporting gross income and then trying to claim a foreign tax credit. If entered this way, this income will show up on Schedule 1, Line 8z. You need then indicate this income also on the form 8938. I guess I answered my own question at the end 😉

pk12_2

@chag2020

which country ?

My copy of Windows Home & Business does not restrict -- it wants just the amount , name of the payor and country.

Can you give me more details-- where and how you are entering the data .

chag2020Author

Mexico.

Here is how I enter it:

- Go to section 'Interest and Dividends'

- Select 'Interest on 1099-INT'. I also went to '1099-OID, Foreign Accounts', where it lets me enter the value in the account and the interest but then asks where in the return I am declaring the income.

- I click on 'Add Investment' and 'Skip Import'

- I select 'Interest'

- I then see a form that mimics the 1099-INT with the FEIN field on top.

pk12_2

@chag2020 , I followed your entry method per your reply ( rather than my preferred method of " I will choose what I work on " ) and the software behaved exactly as expected -- Only name of the payor and the Box-1 interest amount required.

Generally US treats all interest income the same way ( unless tax treaty calls out any restrictions etc. ) -- domestic or foreign.

For the interest income I used a name like Bancomer and a dummy amount of US$300.

Who is the payor of your interest income -- is it from a normal financial firm or as part of your OID for shares ?

Why did you go to 1099-OID and foreign account ? Did you actually have a 1099-OID to recognize ?

I do not see the issue you are reporting -- please help me duplicate the situation , so it can be resolved or reported . If you are uncomfortable sharing data her you can PM me ( just NO PII -- Person ally Identifiable Information )

dk2025

Basically, TurboTax experts could not tell me how to report the foreign tax credits if I reports this interest as misc income instead of as 1099-INT. If we talk with IRS, they say ask TurboTax on how to do that and why we are entering 1099-INT if we did not get one from the bank. It gets stuck at that. I spent more than 4 hours with TurboTax calls and got no where. I faced the same problem last year and the work around above worked but this year claiming foreign tax credit on TurboTax is allowed only if you worked outside of US and not for passive income.

Finally, one of their reps found the FEIN of the bank (it was ICICI bank) and I used that to bypass the review check. She told me that they have a system to look-up FEIN of international banks. However, such scenario may still happen for non-international banks which is yet to be solved by Turbotax.

chag2020Author

I ended up reporting the foreign interest income under Less Common Income --> Miscellaneous Income --> Other reportable income. I reported the gross income and claimed the tax credit by filling out form 1116 as passive income. Not a straight forward process but finally got it all taken care of.

StanduptoMusk2024

I had the exact similar situation for both foreign interest and dividends. For the interest, I followed the advice of the original poster and put it into misc. income. For dividends, I could not find a solution and called TurboTax. She had no solution and we decided to ignore the FEIN issue and leave dividends in the 1099-DIV section and submit return. You simply click on "file" in the left hand bar and follow the prompts.

It worked!. Seems like you can ignore the "issue message" and file anyway. I checked the return and the dividend amount, ended up in the right place on my 1040. Hope that helps.

ccpbraz

Check this to search for the FEIN of the international financial institution:

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/fatca-foreign-financial-institution-list-search-and-download-tool

then I applied the found GIIN in the FEIN field, and the TurboTax error was gone!

ericfons

Thank you for this link: https://apps.irs.gov/app/fatcaFfiList/flu.jsf

For ICICI Bank India, when this GIIN value LDLP3A.99999.SL.356 (obtained from above link) is entered in the FEIN field on the 1099-INT, TurboTax Premier 2024 Desktop edition accepts the 1099-INT and "Tools-->Final Review" does not complain. Any other dummy values such as 00-0000000 and 99-9999999 in the FEIN get flagged by TurboTax's Final Review.