The letterhead letter a payee needs to get an ITIN without a tax return: applicant name, current-year distributions, withholding or reporting requirement. Notes what the IRS rejects (1042-S, 1099 copies, web statements). Read it below, copy the text, print it, or download the .docx for your letterhead.
Template from tincompliance.com. A foreign payee who has no U.S. tax return to file (a nonresident account holder, partner, landlord or pension recipient) applies for an ITIN under one of the five Form W-7 exceptions, and the document the IRS examines is the payer's or withholding agent's letter. The ITIN manual requires, for a bank account, "An original signed letter from the bank on its official letterhead, displaying the applicant's name and stating that they have opened a[n] ... account which is subject to IRS information reporting and/or federal tax withholding on the interest generated during the current tax year," and for other distributions "An original document or signed letter from the withholding agent that is on official letterhead, shows the individuals name and requirement for ITIN in order to make distributions during the current tax year which are subject to federal tax withholding and/or reporting requirements" (IRM 3.21.263.6.3.5.2(9), Aug. 28, 2025). Rental income letters need not mention withholding. Letterhead "may or may not contain a name, address and a logo" (same section). Print on letterhead, sign in ink, and give the payee the original; the IRS wants an original signed letter, not a copy. Delete this note and the bracketed instructions before printing.
[COMPANY LETTERHEAD: legal name of the payer, bank or withholding agent; address; telephone]
[Date]
To: Internal Revenue Service, ITIN Operation
Re: Form W-7 application of [Applicant's full legal name, exactly as it appears on the passport or other identification submitted with Form W-7]
Statement of the withholding agent in support of Form W-7, Exception 1
[Company legal name], EIN [00-0000000], is a [bank / brokerage / partnership / limited liability company / insurance company / pension plan administrator / property manager / other withholding agent] that makes payments subject to United States federal tax withholding and information reporting.
[Applicant's full legal name], whose date of birth is [date] and whose address is [address as shown on Form W-7], [choose one and delete the others:]
[Company legal name] requires an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number for [Applicant's full legal name] in order to make these [distributions / payments] and to satisfy its federal tax withholding and/or information reporting requirements for the current tax year, [year].
This letter is provided at the request of the applicant solely to support the applicant's Form W-7. Questions may be directed to [name, title], [telephone], [email].
[Signature in ink]
[Name], [Title]
[Company legal name]
[Date]
☐ Printed on official letterhead. The manual reads letterhead loosely, but a plain sheet is not letterhead (IRM 3.21.263.6.3.5.2(9)).
☐ Signed in ink by an officer or authorized employee, and the payee receives the original.
☐ The applicant's name is spelled exactly as on the identification that accompanies Form W-7. A later name mismatch between the W-7 and the IRS record makes the ITIN "invalid" on DM-1 (IRM 3.21.263.2.1(2) Note, Jan. 1, 2023).
☐ The letter names the current tax year and states that the distributions or account are subject to federal tax withholding and/or information reporting.
☐ Partnership interests: the partnership agreement with the applicant's name and signature and the partnership's name and EIN is attached.
☐ Treaty claims are a different exception. For Exception 2 the packet needs the treaty country and article on the W-7 plus a copy of the completed withholding agent's portion of Form 8233 (wages or honoraria) or a copy of the Form W-8BEN submitted to the withholding agent (scholarships); a treaty claim without country and article is rejected under R 16 (IRM 3.21.263.6.3.5.2(10); 3.21.263.5.8.2, June 20, 2024).
What the IRS will not accept in place of this letter. The manual instructs examiners: "Related Information Statements may include Form 1042-S, Form 1099-INT, Form 1099-MISC, or Form 8805, Schedule K-1. Information statement(s) are generally prepared once a TIN has been supplied. Do not consider for exception documentation requirements" (IRM 3.21.263.6.3.5.2(9), Aug. 28, 2025); Form 1098 is excluded the same way under Exception 3 (IRM 3.21.263.6.3.5.2(11)). A copy of last year's 1042-S or 1099 will draw reject R 21, exception documentation invalid, or R 19, no exception documentation (IRM 3.21.263.5.8.2, June 20, 2024). A payee's own printout is also invalid: "If the only documentation is a self-generated income statement from a web site (for example, Amazon) filled in by the taxpayer, consider the document invalid"; it becomes valid only with "a contract or a letter with a postmarked envelope addressed from the withholding agent" (IRM 3.21.263.6.3.4.3(3) Note, Aug. 28, 2025). "A request for an EIN (Form SS-4) is not a valid exception" (IRM 3.21.263.6.3.5.2(8) Note). The only information return the manual accepts as exception evidence is the Form 8288 series, for FIRPTA under Exception 4 (IRM 3.21.263.6.3.5.2(12)).
Timing. Phone assistors quote 7 weeks, or 9 to 11 weeks for applications received between January 15 and April 30 or from abroad (IRM 3.21.263.3.3(3), Jan. 4, 2024; 3.21.263.8.3(2), Aug. 28, 2025). A suspended application (CP 566) gives the applicant 120 days to respond. The ITIN arrives by CP 565, not by card; when the payee brings it to you, read the Active indicator, put the CP 565 name on the W-9, and run TIN matching before you stop backup withholding. A payer cannot call the ITIN unit to check on the application; W-7 data is return information and unauthenticated callers receive only "general ITIN information" (IRM 3.21.263.8.1(4), Aug. 28, 2025).
A general-purpose starting point, not legal advice. Your facts, and your counsel, control what you send.