Arnie Goetchius <arnie.goetch...[at]att.net> wrote:

- quote -

The $10,000 amount in the US-Greece Tax Treaty only applies
to amounts earned for personal services. There's a
different section of the treaty that deals with pension
distributions. The provisions of that section say that
private pensions derived from within the US by an individual
who is a resident of Greece shall be exempt from taxation by
the US.

W-8BEN is the proper form to claim a reduced withholding
rate under the terms of the treaty.

--Chris

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A.G. Kalman wrote:
- quote -

Thanks for the correction. I will cite Article XI.

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Arnie Goetchius wrote:

- quote -

You are looking at the wrong treaty article. You are looking
at Article X that deals with compensation for personal
services. You want Article XI that deals with private
pensions. As the individual is not a US citizen, US
National or US Resident Alien, Article XI states that any
pension paid by the US to a resident of Greece for services
rendered previously in the US is not taxable by the US.

Use the W-8BEN to claim exemption, but quote Article XI.

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A non-resident alien ( i.e. not a U.S. person) living in and
a citizen of Greece will soon draw a pension from an
American company based on his work in the U.S a number of
years ago.

The treaty between the US and Greece provides that there is
no US tax due on any income under $10,000 a year. Since the
pension will be under $10,000, presumably there is no tax
due. If that is true, then there should be no withholding
from his pension check.

Ordinarily, I would say use a W4P to exclude have any
deduction for income tax. However, based on my search of the
U.S Treasury/IRS web site, it appears that this person
should use form W-8BEN and use lines 9 and 10 "to claim a 0%
rate of withholding".

Do I have that correct?

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