Part of my RRSP is held with HSBC Securities.
A few months ago, I got a letter from HSBC saying that the "IRS requires us to obtain documentation from all beneficial owners of accounts holding securities that pay US source income." I guess I signed a W-8BEN Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for US Tax Withholding a few years ago (when I was still living in Canada) and now that documentation is expiring so I have to sign another one.
The problem is that I recently became a Permanent resident of the US and I can't sign the W-8BEN now because I AM now a US resident. (Btw, I haven't notified HSBC of the status change so the letter wasn't sent because of that reason). So on the W-8BEN form it says to use Form W-9 if I am a US resident alien.
I read that the W-9 form doesn't actually get sent to the IRS but that the information on the W-9 and the payment made are usually reported on a Form 1096 or 1099 (from Wikipedia). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W-9#W-9
My question: Does anybody have any idea what the IRS will say when they get this new info from HSBC? I didn't declare my RRSP to the IRS because I thought it was treated like 401k and tax-free. Am I going to get into some trouble now if the IRS finds out about my RRSP?
What if I just ignored HSBC and didn't sign their form? What would they do? I wonder if anyone has had this experience before. Thanks in advance!



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