On October 3, 2022, the IRS informed about changes in the sign-in options for new users of the Qualified Intermediary (QI), Withholding Foreign Partnership (WP), Withholding Foreign Trust Application (WT) and Account Management System (QAAMS), which will be rolled out in fall 2022. QAAMS is a system which is mainly used by Responsible Officers (RO) and Contact Persons (CP) of QIs, WPs and WTs to register, modify the registration, and perform the periodic certification of the QI, WP or WT. Contrary to the FATCA registration portal, QAAMS requires every user with access to a registered entity to create a separate user account.
The new sign-in system will require future users to register with and sign-in via ID.me, a secure identity proofing, authentication, and group affiliation verification provider. Consequently, users that will act as RO or CP will have to have their identity verified with that platform before they can access QAAMS. This includes a passport verification step and may even require a video call with a representative to verify a person’s identity. The good news is that ID.me specifically accepts registrations of persons outside of the US (as opposed to the IR-TCC platform). In fact, we have been successful in opening our own ID.me accounts in the past, with not unsurmountable hurdles.
The way the IRS announced the change, it will have an impact on all future users of the portal, which means that not only new QIs but also existing QIs will be affected when they appoint a new RO or CP. In addition, the IRS announced that the new sign-in options will ultimately be mandatory for existing users too.
Current users of QAAMS are not required to take any action at this time as the IRS has not yet rolled out the sign-in change. We will report recommendations and details on the ID.me registration process in the future.