Form 8802 Electronic Application

Purpose of Form

Form 8802 is used to request Form 6166, a letter of U.S. residency certification for purposes of claiming benefits under an income tax treaty or VAT exemption. You cannot use Form 6166 to substantiate that U.S. taxes were paid for purposes of claiming a foreign tax credit.

You cannot claim a foreign tax credit to reduce your U.S. tax liability with respect to foreign taxes that have been reduced or eliminated by reason of a treaty. If you receive a refund of foreign taxes paid with the benefit of Form 6166, you may need to file an amended return with the IRS to adjust any foreign tax credits previously claimed for those taxes.

When to file

You should mail your application, including full payment of the user fee, at least 45 days before the date you need to submit Form 6166. We will contact you after 30 days if there will be a delay in processing your application. You can call 267-941-1000 (not a toll-free number) and select the U.S. residency option if you have questions regarding your application.

Early submission for a current year certification. The IRS cannot accept an early submission for a current year Form 6166 that has a postmark date before December 1 of the prior year. Requests received with a postmark date earlier than December 1 will be returned to the sender. For example, a Form 6166 request for 2024:

• Received with a postmark date before December 1, 2023, cannot be processed;
• Received with a postmark date on or after December 1, 2023, can be processed with the appropriate documentation.

User Fee

Form 8802 application(s) will not be processed until the nonrefundable user fee is paid. The user fee is for the number of applications submitted, not the number of certifications requested.

Requests by individual applicants. The user fee for a request by an individual applicant is $85 per Form 8802, regardless of the number of countries for which certification is requested or the number of tax year(s) to which the certification applies. For this purpose, an individual applicant means an individual who is a citizen of the United States or a resident thereof, within the meaning of Section 7701(b)(1)(A).

Requests by applicants other than individuals. The user fee for an application by each nonindividual applicant is $185 per Form 8802.

Fiscally transparent entities. A partnership, S corporation, grantor trust, or other fiscally transparent entity pays a single $185 user fee per Form 8802 application with respect to all Forms 6166 issued under its employer identification number (EIN), notwithstanding that the IRS will verify the tax status of each of the partners, owners, or beneficiaries of the entity who have consented to the request for certification.

Custodial accounts. A custodian requesting certification on behalf of an account holder pays a user fee for each account holder taxpayer identification number (TIN). The custodian will pay a user fee of $85 or $185, depending on whether that account holder is an individual or a nonindividual applicant.

Multiple requests. Because an applicant must pay the user fee of either $85 or $185 for each separate Form 8802 submitted, the IRS encourages each applicant to include all Form 6166 requests on a single Form 8802 (separate for individual and nonindividual) to avoid multiple user fee charges.

Additional requests. Additional requests for Form 6166 submitted on a separate Form 8802, following the procedures established under Additional Requests, later, will require the payment of the applicable user fee.

3-year procedure. You are required to pay the applicable user fee for each Form 8802 application submitted under the 3-year procedure. See Certification Under the 3-Year Procedure, later.