A form purporting to be from the US Internal Revenue Service has been received by fax in the Cayman Islands.
An accompanying letter is addressed to ‘Dear Sir’ and asks that ‘Form W-8BEN U’ be completed and returned within one week.
The form asks for the person’s identification details, including bank name and bank account number.
Whoever fills out the form is directed to fax it to a number at the bottom of the page.
The fax number is for the area code 514. But 514 is the code for Montreal, which is in Canada.
On the assumption that the IRS was not likely to have set up operations in Canada, the Caymanian Compass checked the website for the IRS as provided in the packet sent to US citizens every year for tax-filing purposes.
That website enables the user to download various forms, including a ‘W-8BEN’.
There are differences between the form from Montreal and the form from the IRS website. Some are quite subtle.
The IRS form is W-8BEN. The Montreal form adds a letter – W-8BEN U.
The IRS form is called a Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding.
The Montreal form adds a few words and changes two. It also reverses some capital and common letters. It is labelled Certification of foreign status Beneficiary Owner For United States of America Tax Withholding.
The differences include the words certificate and certification, beneficial and beneficiary.
Most importantly, the IRS form does NOT explicitly ask for the bank account number.
The Montreal form was received at Cayman Free Press on Monday. Queries were immediately directed to the IRS website dealing with forms.
However, Monday was Columbus Day, a holiday in the US. As of Wednesday morning, no reply had been received.
Also on Monday, the Compass contacted the Royal Cayman Islands Police Financial Crime Unit. An officer there advised that the matter was being looked into; a statement is to be issued as soon as information becomes available.
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