IRS stands for internal revenue service and it is a government body that collects revenue in form of income tax returns from residential and non- residential Americans who are eligible for paying taxes to the government. The income tax officers work on their database every year to collect information about the people who are eligible for paying income tax returns and identifies them correctly. This identification is needed to calculate the amount of tax returns one will be paying and also to know and identify people who are not paying the taxes on time so that proper actions can be taken regarding such situation.
This identification process is done by providing the eligible members with the SSN that is the social security number but for those who are not eligible for getting a SSN from the government but are eligible for tax returns then such candidates are provided with Itin number. ITIN is individual taxpayer id number that consists of 9 digits and is provided to people who cannot file for an SSN. One must know that one person can never have an SSN and an ITIN together. It has to either SSN or ITIN for each and every eligible tax payer.
Also, the taxpayer id number is only meant for tax returns and it does not provide any other benefit or authority of anything to the ITIN number holder. It is not a license to start a business and it does not apply for any other identification purpose at all. It is a number that is only meant to be used while filing income tax returns every year.
In order to receive an itin number one needs to file and apply for it to the IRS. The IRS collects related documents, identification proofs and other major certificates and verifies the integrity of the applicant before issuing the taxpayer id number. One can apply for the individual taxpayer identification number by the help of W7 form. One can find the form online in the official web site.
The form is simple to be filled up by the candidate. It is recommended to go through the list of documents first and sort the documents out in exactly the way the IRS demands it. This will help one in filling up the W7 form with exact and correct data. One needs to be careful about filling up the application form because any wrong information might be a barrier between the candidate and the itin number.
The data entered in the form must be matched up with the supported documents and once the form is filled up one can simply mail it to the given address. There are two different addresses given in the web site for the convenience of the applicant. For those who are sending the documents and form via US mailing services have a different address to mail it too and other speed posts and courier service users are provided with a different address. Apply for the ITIN and get over with the tax paying criteria.