Internal Revenue Service
Revenue Ruling

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 Rev. Rul. 64-99

1964-1 C.B. 482

Sec. 6109

IRS Headnote

An employer identification number must be obtained for an estate or a trust which will be closed during the year if any return or other document is required to be filed with respect to the estate or the trust.

A statement of facts concerning an account which is inactive because it is in the name of a deceased administrator of an estate will be sufficient to identify the account.

Full Text

Rev. Rul. 64-99

The Internal Revenue Service has been requested to advise as to the necessity of obtaining taxpayer identifying numbers for estates and trusts which will be closed during the year, and for an inactive account where the administrator under the will of a decedent is deceased and the heirs have not been found.

Section 6109 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 provides, in general, that taxpayers are required to obtain identifying numbers for one or more of three purposes: (1) To include the numbers in returns, statements or other documents which they are required to make with respect to themselves; (2) To furnish the numbers to any person required to make a return, statement, or other document with respect to them; (3) To include the numbers in returns, statements, or other documents which they are required to make with respect to another person.

However, section 1.6109-1(b)(2)(ii) of the Income Tax Regulations provides that the identifying number of a payee is not required to be included in any return or statement with respect to payments made to such payee if the total amount shown on such return or statement was paid to such payee prior to October 1, 1963.

Section 6042 of the Code provides, in general, that every person who makes payments of dividends aggregating $10 or more to any other person during any calendar year shall make a return with respect to such payments. Section 6049 requires that payments of interest be reported in a similar manner.

Section 6012 of the Code provides, in pertinent part, that returns shall be made by every estate the gross income of which for the taxable year is $600 or more; every trust having for the taxable year any taxable income or having gross income of $600 or over, regardless of the amount of taxable income; and, every estate or trust of which any beneficiary is a nonresident alien.

Accordingly, it is held that if a return or other document is required to be filed with respect to an estate or a trust, under any of the sections mentioned above, it will be necessary for the fiduciary to obtain and furnish an identifying number to be included in that return or document even though the estate or the trust will be closed during the year. The identifying number prescribed for use by an estate or a trust is an `employer identification number'.

In the case of an account which is inactive because it is in the name of an administrator of an estate who is deceased, the payer of interest may simply report on the information return, in instances otherwise requiring the inclusion of an identifying number, that the administrator is deceased and that a reasonable attempt has been made to contact the heirs of the estate.