Generally, a QI is any foreign intermediary that has entered into a QI withholding agreement with the IRS. See the discussion of Qualified Intermediaries for more information. A foreign intermediary that has received a QI employer identification number (QI-EIN) may represent on Form W-8IMY that it is a QI. The intermediary can claim that it is a QI until the IRS revokes its QI-EIN. The IRS will revoke a QI-EIN if the QI or IRS terminates the QI agreement or if the QI Agreement is not renewed. The QI Agreement is renewed only upon the agreement of both QI and the IRS. Responsibilities Payments made to a QI that does not assume NRA withholding responsibility are treated as paid to its account holders and customers. However, a QI is not required to provide you with documentation it obtains from its foreign account holders and customers. Instead, it provides you with a withholding statement that contains withholding rate pool information. A withholding rate pool is a payment of a single type of income, determined in accordance with the categories of income reported on Form 1042-S that is subject to a single rate of withholding. A qualified intermediary is required to provide you with information regarding U.S. persons subject to Form 1099 reporting and to provide you withholding rate pool information separately for each such U.S. person unless it has assumed Form 1099 reporting and backup withholding responsibility. For an alternate procedure for providing rate pool information for U.S. non-exempt persons, refer to the Form W-8 IMY instructions. The withholding statement must: Designate those accounts for which it acts as a qualified intermediary, Designate those accounts for which it assumes primary NRA withholding responsibility and/or primary Form 1099 and backup withholding responsibility, and Provide sufficient information for you to allocate the payment to a withholding rate pool. The extent to which you must have withholding rate pool information depends on the withholding and reporting obligations assumed by the QI. Primary responsibility not assumed If a QI does not assume primary NRA withholding responsibility or primary Form 1099 reporting and backup withholding responsibility for the payment, you can reliably associate the payment with valid documentation only to the extent you can reliably determine the portion of the payment that relates to each withholding rate pool for foreign payees. Unless the alternative procedure applies, the qualified intermediary must provide you with a separate withholding rate pool for each U.S. person subject to Form 1099 reporting and/or backup withholding. The QI must provide a Form W-9 or, in the absence of the form, the name, address, and TIN, if available, for such person. Primary NRA withholding responsibility assumed If you make a payment to a QI that assumes primary NRA withholding responsibility (but not primary Form 1099 reporting and backup withholding responsibility), you can reliably associate the payment with valid documentation only to the extent you can reliably determine the portion of the payment that relates to the withholding rate pool for which the QI assumes primary NRA withholding responsibility and the portion of the payment attributable to withholding rate pools for each U.S. person, unless the alternative procedure applies, subject to Form 1099 reporting and/or backup withholding. The QI must provide a Form W-9 or, in absence of the form, the name, address, and TIN, if available, for such person. Primary NRA and Form 1099 responsibility assumed If you make a payment to a QI that assumes both primary NRA withholding responsibility and primary Form 1099 reporting and backup withholding responsibility, you can reliably associate a payment with valid documentation provided that you receive a valid Form W-8 IMY. It is not necessary to associate the payment with withholding rate pools. Example: You make a payment of dividends to a QI. It has 5 customers: two are foreign persons who have provided documentation entitling them to a 15% rate of withholding on dividends; two are foreign persons subject to a 30% rate of withholding on dividends; and one is a U.S. individual who provides it with a Form W-9. Each customer is entitled to 20% of the dividend payment. The QI does not assume any primary withholding responsibility. The QI gives you a Form W-8IMY with which it associates the Form W-9 and a withholding statement that allocates 40% of the dividend to a 15% withholding rate pool, 40% to a 30% withholding rate pool and 20% to the U.S. individual. You should report on Forms 1042-S 40% of the payment as made to a 15% rate dividend pool and 40% of the payment as made to a 30% rate dividend pool. The portion of the payment allocable to the U.S. individual (20%) is reportable on Form 1099-DIV. Smaller partnerships and trusts. A QI may apply special rules to a smaller partnership or trust only if the partnership or trust meets the following conditions. It is a foreign partnership or foreign simple or grantor trust. It is a direct account holder of the QI. It does not have any partner, beneficiary, or owner that is a U.S. person or a pass- through partner, beneficiary, or owner. Related partnerships and trusts. A QI may apply special rules to a related partnership or trust only if the partnership or trust meets the following conditions. It is a foreign partnership or foreign simple or grantor trust. It is either: A direct account holder of the QI, or An indirect account holder of the QI that is a direct partner, beneficiary, or owner of a partnership or trust to which the QI has applied this rule. For more information, please refer to Revenue Procedures 2022-43 PDF and 2017-21.
