Form W-8CE Notice of Expatriation and Waiver of Treaty Benefits

W-8CE

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Form
(November 2009)
Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service

Notice of Expatriation and Waiver of Treaty Benefits
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OMB No. 1545-2138

Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code.

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Give this form to the payer. Do not send to the IRS.

Name of owner

U.S. taxpayer identification number

Permanent address

Expatriation date

City, province or state, postal code, and country

Current mailing address, if different from permanent address. Include apt. or suite no., or P.O. box if mail is not delivered to street address.

City, town or post office, state, and ZIP code. If you have a foreign address, enter city, province or state, postal code, and country.

Under penalties of perjury, I certify that I am a covered expatriate (as defined in the instructions below). Furthermore, I authorize
this form to be provided to any withholding agent that has control, receipt, or custody of the income of which I am the beneficial
owner or any withholding agent that can disburse or make payments of the income of which I am the beneficial owner.
Account Number

Name of payer

(or other identifying information)

For the payer above, check the box below if you had any of the following items on the day
before your expatriation date (see instructions).
1. Eligible Deferred Compensation Item. Checking this box notifies the payer that you are
irrevocably waiving any right to claim any reduction in withholding for such eligible deferred
compensation item under any treaty with the United States (see instructions)
2. Ineligible Deferred Compensation Item
3. Specified Tax Deferred Account
4. Nongrantor Trust. Checking this box notifies the payer that you will be treated as having waived any
right to claim any reduction in withholding on any distribution from this trust under any treaty with the
United States (see instructions)

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Checking this box notifies the payer that you are electing to be treated as having received the value of your interest in the trust on
the day before your expatriation date and that you will be subject to withholding under section 877A until the payer receives (a) a
copy of the letter ruling issued by the IRS stating the value of your interest in the trust and (b) your certification that you have paid
any tax due on the receipt of the value of your interest in the trust (see instructions).
Signature

General Instructions
Purpose
Use Form W-8CE to notify the payer that
you are a covered expatriate individual
subject to special tax rules.

Covered Expatriate
You are a covered expatriate if you are an
expatriate to whom any of the following
applied on your expatriation date.
1) Your average annual net income tax for
the 5-year period ending the year before
your expatriation date is more than
$145,000 (for 2009 and 2010). This amount
is indexed for inflation. For years after 2010,
see the Instructions for Form 8854 for the
adjusted amount.
2) Your net worth is $2 million or more.
3) You have not certified under penalties
of perjury that you met all federal tax

Date

obligations for the preceding 5 years or
have not submitted evidence of such
compliance.
Exceptions. Statements (1) and (2) above
do not apply if:
● You became a U.S. citizen and a citizen
of another country at birth and, as of your
expatriation date, continue to be a citizen
of, and taxed as a resident of, such other
country, and you were a U.S. resident for
not more than 10 tax years during the
15-year period ending with the tax year in
which you expatriated, or
● You relinquished U.S. citizenship before
the age of 181⁄2 and were a U.S. resident
for not more than 10 tax years before your
expatriation date.
Expatriate. An expatriate is a U.S. citizen
who relinquished citizenship or a long-term
resident who ceased to be a lawful
permanent resident.

For Paperwork Reduction Act Notice, see page 2.

Cat. No. 51945M

Long-Term Resident. For expatriation
purposes, a long-term resident is any
individual who was a lawful permanent
resident of the United States in at least 8
out of the last 15 tax years ending with the
tax year of expatriation.
Expatriation date. Your expatriation date is
the date you relinquished U.S. citizenship or
the date on which you ceased to be a lawful
permanent U.S. resident.

Who Must File
Covered expatriates are required to give
Form W-8CE to the payer if they had any of
the items identified in Boxes 1 through 4 on
the day before their expatriation date. In
addition, all expatriates must file Form 8854
with the Internal Revenue Service.
Deferred compensation items. Deferred
compensation items include any interest in
a plan or arrangement described in section
219(g)(5), any interest in a foreign pension
plan or similar retirement arrangement
Form

W-8CE

(11-2009)

Form W-8CE (11-2009)

or program, any item of deferred
compensation, and any property, or right to
property, that the individual is entitled to
receive in connection with the performance
of services to the extent not previously
taken into account under section 83 or in
accordance with section 83.
Eligible deferred compensation item
(Box 1). A deferred compensation item is an
eligible deferred compensation item if the
following three conditions are met.
1. The payer is either a U.S. person or a
foreign person electing to be treated as a
U.S. person under an agreement with the
IRS. (Separate guidance will be issued
providing procedures to make this election.)
2. You notify the payer of your status as a
covered expatriate.
3. You make an irrevocable waiver on
Form 8854 of any right to claim any
reduction of withholding on this item under
any treaty with the United States.
Check Box 1 if you have an eligible
deferred compensation item. Checking this
box provides notice to the payer that you
are a covered expatriate who is waiving
benefits under any treaty with the United
States for the eligible deferred
compensation item.
Ineligible deferred compensation item
(Box 2). A deferred compensation item is an
ineligible deferred compensation item if the
three conditions listed above are not met.
Check Box 2 if you have an ineligible
deferred compensation item. Checking this
box provides notice to the payer that you
are a covered expatriate who is to be
treated as receiving an amount equal to
the present value of your accrued benefit
on the day before your expatriation date.
Specified tax deferred account (Box 3).
Specified tax deferred accounts include
individual retirement plans (as defined in
section 7701(a)(37)) other than
arrangements described in subsection (k)
or (p) of section 408, qualified tuition
programs (as defined in section 529),
Coverdell education savings accounts (as
defined in section 530), health savings
accounts (as defined in section 223), and
Archer MSAs (as defined in section 220).
Check Box 3 if you have a specified tax
deferred account. Checking this box
provides notice to the payer that you are a
covered expatriate who is to be treated as
receiving a distribution of your entire
interest in the account on the day before
your expatriation date.
Nongrantor trust (Box 4). A nongrantor
trust is the portion of any trust (U.S. or
foreign) that you are not considered
(immediately before your expatriation date)
to own under the grantor trust rules (see
sections 671 through 679). The withholding
rules of section 877A apply to a nongrantor
trust only if you were a beneficiary on the
day before your expatriation date.

Page

Check Box 4 if you were the beneficiary
of a nongrantor trust on the day before
your expatriation date. Checking this box
provides notice to the trustee that you are
a covered expatriate who, unless the box
below this line is checked, is deemed to
have waived any right to claim any
reduction in withholding on any distribution
from this trust under any treaty with the
United States.
Election to be treated as receiving
value of interest in the trust. You can
elect to pay tax currently on the value of
your interest in the trust if you first obtain a
letter ruling from the IRS stating the value
of your interest in the trust as of the day
before your expatriation date. Make the
election on Form 8854. Attach the
valuation letter ruling to Form 8854 and file
Form 8854 with your Form 1040 or Form
1040NR. An election is not valid unless
your income tax return is filed by the due
date plus extensions.

When To File
File Form W-8CE on the earlier of (a) the
day before the first distribution on or after
the expatriation date or (b) thirty (30) days
after the expatriation date for each
specified tax deferred account, item of
deferred compensation, or interest in a
nongrantor trust.

Where To File
Give Form W-8CE to each payer of the
income described above. Keep a copy for
your own records.

Instructions for Payer
As a result of receiving notification of
expatriation on Form W-8CE, you may
have a requirement to withhold tax under
section 877A or to report information to the
IRS.
Eligible deferred compensation. You
must withhold 30% on any taxable
payment to the covered expatriate.
Ineligible deferred compensation. You
must advise the covered expatriate within
60 days of receipt of this form of the
present value of the individual’s accrued
benefit in the deferred compensation item
on the day before the expatriation date.
Specified tax deferred account. You
must advise the covered expatriate within
60 days of receipt of this form of the
individual’s entire interest in the account
on the day before the expatriation date.
Nongrantor trust. If the covered expatriate
elects to be treated as receiving the value
of his interest in the nongrantor trust on
the day before his expatriation date, you
must provide the covered expatriate within

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60 days of receipt of this form with the
information needed to calculate the value
of his interest in the trust as of the day
before the expatriation date. This
information includes the following.
● A copy of the trust deed document.
● A list of assets held by the trust on the
day before the expatriation date and
the values of such assets.
● Relevant information about the
interests of the other beneficiaries.
● Dates of birth of all persons who
constitute measuring lives for any
distributions.
● Policies used by trustees in making
discretionary distributions (if any) that
may constitute an ascertainable
standard.
● Any other relevant information.
If you do not provide such documents
and information to the covered expatriate,
then the election is not valid and you must
withhold 30% on any taxable distributions
from the trust.
If the covered expatriate makes the
election, you must withhold 30% on any
taxable distribution from the trust until you
receive (a) a copy of the valuation letter
ruling issued by the IRS and (b) the
covered expatriate’s certification under
penalties of perjury that he has paid any
tax due on the value of the trust that he is
treated as receiving.
Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We ask
for the information on this form to carry out
the Internal Revenue laws of the United
States. You are required to provide the
information. We need it to ensure that you
are complying with these laws and to allow
us to figure and collect the right amount of
tax.
The time needed to complete and file this
form will vary depending on individual
circumstances. The estimated average time
is: Recordkeeping, 3 hr., 35 min.; Learning
about the law or the form, 1 hr., 00 min.;
Preparing and sending the form, 1 hr., 6
min.
If you have comments concerning the
accuracy of these time estimates or
suggestions for making this form simpler,
we would be happy to hear from you. You
can email us at *[email protected]. (The
asterisk must be included in the address.)
Enter “Forms Comment” on the subject
line. Or you can write to Internal Revenue
Service, Tax Products Coordinating
Committee, SE:W:CAR:MP:T:T:SP, 1111
Constitution Ave. NW, IR-6526,
Washington, DC 20224. Do not send Form
W-8CE to this address. Instead, give it to
the payer.