US banks and Social Security No.

Hello everyone,

I am a Canadian Citizen who just bought a small property in Arizona to use as a holiday retreat and rent out at other times. I opened an account at a US bank and can access it online but cannot use their online bill paying feature without a social security number. The bank branch have contacted their managers to no avail. Since this is a very important feature to me is anyone able to pay their bills online, and if so, which bank?
Thanks for your help.

If you rent it out you become subject to US tax, have a read of this: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/p151/README.html

Or non-resident withholding at 30% if for some bizarre reason you decide not to elect to have it connected to a US trade or business. You can claim a foreign tax credit in Canada so it's basically just a heap of paperwork, you end up paying the same amount.

I'm not sure yet how this will be affected by the new tax treaty, a rental property is a "fixed base" for the purposes of the old treaty but I'm not sure if it's a "permanent establishment" for the purposes of the new one, but regardless, it's US-source income, so there will be US taxes to pay, just the forms might change a bit so you don't have the election anymore (i.e. it's always treated as income tax).

Anyway the point of my telling you all this is that when you file your 1040NR return you can file a W-7 which will give you an ITIN, which you can use in place of a social security number.

Steve, thanks for your response and the link. Although I am aware of the tax situation I had not considered the idea of filing a W-7 giving me an ITIN to be used in place of a social security number. I will follow through on your suggestion and let you know how it turns out. Thanks again for your help.

Yeah, bear in mind you don't necessarily need to rent it out to get the ITIN, just file a nil return with a Form 8833. They're called "protective" returns. If the IRS asks (they're iffy about handing out ITINs precisely to stop people doing what you're trying to do) tell them you plan on renting it out and it's just a protective return for future reference. Unfortunately you've missed the filing deadline for this year.

My bank, Wells Fargo, is not interested in an ITIN. Checked with other banks, same problem, oh well, back to cheques and snail mail.
Thanks Steve,
John

Try looking into using RBC Centura - it is a bank based out of Florida that was bought by RBC. You can open an account using your SIN number, and you can electronically transfer funds between your Canadaian and US RBC accounts free of charge and the money is available immediatly. It was a solution that helped me out a ton when I first moved to the US.

We opened our account with Bank of America (Canadians as well) and are able to pay our bills online. I remember when we couldn't do that and everything was always late.

We ran into the same situation when we moved to the US. It was after 9/11 and the Homland Security situation was getting sorted out. Nevertheless, I have opened several accounts with an ITIN number (changing it to a SSN number once I got my green card)

Thank you all for the suggestions, I will follow them up and let you know how they work out,
John

My bank, Wells Fargo

Problem in a nutshell.