Pension payments made to a nonresident alien, he passes away and now the surviving spouse wants to begin her payments under his SSN...is this legal?

[Guest cole24]

A retiree was a Nonresident alien. He passed away on January 8, 2000. He is survived by his wife. She speaks no English and has retained the services of a third party to translate and assist her through the process of claiming her husband's survivor benefits. The translator claims that Marie is receiving social security benefits under her late husband's SSN, that she does not have an SSN or Individual Tax I.D., and should not need to obtain this information to receive survivor benefits. I was under the impression that she would need to establish a SSN or ITID so that we may put her into pay and report her tax obligation correctly. I was wondering how other people handle such situations. Does anyone know of any guidance that has been issued, what would be considered "best practices," etc.? Thanks for your help.

[Harwood]

If, at the time of distribution from a qualified plan, the recipient is a Non-Resident Alien, there is no SSN or Taxpayer Identification number needed. Such distributions are reported on Form 1042-S, not 1099-R. The use of an SSN/TIN is not required on Form 1042-S.

[Appleby]

….but if no TIN is provided, then the non-resident alien (NRA) withholding cannot be less than 30 percent

[Appleby]

If, at the time of distribution from a qualified plan, the recipient is a Non-Resident Alien, there is no SSN or Taxpayer Identification number needed. Such distributions are reported on Form 1042-S, not 1099-R. The use of an SSN/TIN is not required on Form 1042-S.

Harwood---Would you say that the individual is not required to obtain the ITIN in order to obtain the payment, providing the ITIN is obtained after the payment is made—see § 1.1441-6 (g)(2)