John Sweeney, Branch 8 Chief in the IRS Office of Associate Chief Counsel International, said on June 2 that proposed and temporary regulations limiting refunds and credits claimed by nonresident alien individuals and foreign corporations for taxes withheld under Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the Code will be released soon.  According to Sweeney, who was speaking at the Federal Bar Association Insurance Tax Seminar, most of the work on the regulations is complete.

The IRS announced its intent to amend the regulations under Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 last year in Notice 2015-10.  According to the notice, the temporary regulations will amend Treas. Reg. §§ 1.1464-1(a) and 1.1474-5(a)(1) to provide that, subject to section 6401(b), a refund or credit is allowable with respect to an overpayment only to the extent the relevant withholding agent has deposited (or otherwise paid to the Treasury Department) the amount withheld and such amount is in excess of the claimant’s tax liability.  The IRS said the regulation is needed because allowing a credit or refund based on the amount reported as withheld on Form 1042-S represents a risk to the Treasury if a foreign withholding agent fails to deposit the withheld tax with the U.S. Treasury.  The IRS has limited ability to pursue foreign withholding agents for such failures making it difficult to recover the amounts allowed to be claimed as credits or refunds.

According to Sweeney, the regulations will adopt the pro rata method described in Notice 2015-10 for allocating the amount available for refund or credit with respect to each claimant. Under this method, a withholding agent’s deposits made to its Form 1042 account will be divided by the amount reported as withheld on all Forms 1042-S filed by the withholding agent to arrive at a “deposit percentage.”  Each claimant will then be allowed to claim as a credit or refund the amount reported on its Form 1042-S multiplied by the deposit percentage for the withholding agent.  The pro rata approach is necessary because of the inability for the IRS to trace deposits back to specific payments made to a claimant based on the information reported on Form 1042 and Form 1042-S.