What is the form the bank just handed me, and why only me?
If you are a US citizen or green-card holder opening an Israeli bank account, the teller will slide IRS Form W-9 (and usually the bank's own one-page FATCA self-certification) across the desk and ask you to sign. You are confirming your US-person status and handing over your US tax ID number so the bank can report the account to the IRS each year2. The person opening the next account over, a native Israeli with no US tie, signs nothing of the kind. This single form is the one piece of US paperwork that follows your American passport into an Israeli branch.
Not advice
What exactly is IRS Form W-9?
Form W-9 is the IRS "Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification." Its single job is to give your correct Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), for an individual, your Social Security Number (SSN), to a party that has to report information about you to the IRS1. In the US you fill one out for a freelance client, a brokerage, or a bank paying you interest. The form is not a tax return, it does not calculate or collect any tax, and you do not mail it to the IRS. You give it to the requester, here, the Israeli bank.
At the Israeli counter the W-9 plays the same role it always does: it tells the institution holding your money "this customer is a US person; here is the number to file under." Some Israeli banks use the actual IRS W-9; many use their own self-certification sheet that collects the identical fields (name, US TIN, US-person declaration) in a format their compliance system reads. Functionally they are the same document. Sign whichever you are handed.
Why does an Israeli bank care about a US tax form?
Because the United States and Israel signed a FATCA agreement on 30 June 2014, and that agreement makes the bank legally responsible for finding and reporting its US-person customers3. FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, requires foreign financial institutions to report on accounts held by their US account holders, or face a punitive US withholding tax on their own US-source income2. No Israeli bank is willing to absorb that withholding, so every one of them identifies US persons at the door. The W-9 is how they do it.
The US-Israel agreement is a "Model 1" arrangement, which matters for where your data goes. The bank does not send your information straight to Washington. It reports it to the טופס (tofes)-driven FATCA system at the Israel Tax Authority, which then exchanges it with the IRS under the automatic-exchange provisions of the 1975 US-Israel tax treaty34. So the reporting chain is bank → Israel Tax Authority → IRS, once a year.
What does the bank actually report to the IRS about my account?
The bank reports the identifying and balance details of your account, not your spending, and not every transaction. Under the Model 1 FATCA agreement the data set for a reportable account is essentially: your name and address, your US TIN, the account number, the account's year-end balance or value, and the gross ריבית (ribit) (interest), dividends, and other income credited to the account during the year3. This applies to your חשבון עובר ושב (Cheshbon Over VeShav) (current account), any savings sub-accounts, and any foreign-currency sub-accounts under the same master number.
| Question | US-citizen / green-card oleh | UK / Canada / SA / France oleh (no US tie) |
|---|---|---|
| Form signed at the counter | IRS Form W-9 (or the bank's FATCA self-certification)1 | CRS self-certification (declares country of tax residence) |
| Number you must supply | US TIN, your SSN (or ITIN if you cannot get an SSN) | Israeli מספר זהות (mispar zehut) and home-country tax number |
| Who the bank reports the account to | Israel Tax Authority → forwarded to the IRS3 | Israel Tax Authority → forwarded to your home tax authority (HMRC, CRA, SARS, DGFiP)6 |
| What is reported | Name, TIN, account number, year-end balance, interest/income | Same data set, under CRS rather than FATCA |
| Frequency | Annual, automatic | Annual, automatic |
Is being handed this form a red flag or an audit trigger?
No. It is routine and it is universal among US persons in Israel, every American-passport holder who opens an account gets the same form, and the bank is simply doing what the FATCA agreement requires of it2. Signing the W-9 does not mean you owe Israeli or US tax on the account, does not flag you for examination, and does not change the terms of the account. The report the bank files is informational. What it does signal is the thing many new olim are blindsided by: as a US citizen, your US filing duties did not end when you left the US, and the account you just opened is now visible to the IRS from day one.
The genuinely risky move is the opposite one, trying to avoid the form. If you decline to confirm US-person status, or open the account on your second (non-US) passport hoping FATCA will not apply, you have not escaped anything. A US-Israel dual citizen is a US person under FATCA regardless of which passport opened the account2. An account the IRS later matches to an undisclosed US person is the scenario that creates friction, including for your separate annual FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) filing, which you owe once your non-US accounts together exceed $10,000 at any point in the year7.
Knowledge Check
You sign IRS Form W-9 at the Israeli bank. Where does the form go?
What do I do if I do not have an SSN yet?
First, distinguish two situations. Most US-citizen olim already have an SSN from their American life, you just may not have the card on you. In that case the practical answer is usually that the bank opens the account and lets you supply the number shortly after; ask the branch to note that the W-9 number will follow, and bring it within their stated window. The account stays usable in the meantime in the great majority of cases.
The harder case is a person with a US filing obligation who is not eligible for an SSN, for example, a non-US spouse the IRS still treats as needing a number, or a US-person dependent. There the right instrument is an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number): a 9-digit number the IRS issues to people who need a US tax ID but cannot get an SSN, applied for on Form W-7 alongside a US tax return5. An ITIN satisfies the "US TIN" field on the W-9. Note the lead time, the IRS quotes roughly 7 weeks (9–11 in filing season) to issue an ITIN5, so if you will need one, start it early rather than at the bank counter.
What you cannot do is supply noUS TIN at all and assume it is fine. A bank that cannot complete its FATCA file on a self-identified US person may decline the account, restrict it, or escalate it as a "recalcitrant" account under the agreement3. If you are an SSN-eligible US citizen who simply never applied, the clean fix is to obtain the SSN, not an ITIN, which is only for the SSN-ineligible5.
What do UK, Canadian, South African, and French olim sign instead?
A CRS self-certification, not a W-9. The Common Reporting Standard is the OECD's global equivalent of FATCA: Israel obtains account information from its banks and automatically exchanges it with other participating jurisdictions once a year6. The form you sign declares your country of tax residence rather than your citizenship, and the resulting report flows to that authority, HMRC for the UK, the CRA for Canada, SARS for South Africa, DGFiP for France, not to the IRS.
That distinction in the trigger is the whole story. FATCA is keyed to US citizenship, which is why it follows a US passport to Israel for life; CRS is keyed to tax residence, which for most non-US olim shifts to Israel soon after aliyah, winding the home-country reporting down. The exception that swallows the rule: a dual citizen who holds a US passport and a UK, Canadian, South African, or French one is in both systems and will be asked for the W-9.
One sentence on funds (covered separately)
If you are a US citizen or green-card holder opening an Israeli bank account, the teller hands you IRS Form W-9 (or the bank's own one-page FATCA self-certification) to collect your US Taxpayer Identification Number. You sign it for the bank, not the IRS. Under the US-Israel FATCA agreement, which is a Model 1 arrangement, the bank reports your account once a year to the Israel Tax Authority, which forwards it to the IRS: your name, account number, year-end balance, and interest paid. This is routine paperwork that every US-person account in Israel goes through, not a red flag or audit trigger. If you do not have your SSN handy you can usually open the account and supply the number shortly after; if you have a US filing obligation but cannot get an SSN, you apply for an ITIN on Form W-7. UK, Canadian, South African, and French olim with no US tie sign a CRS self-certification instead, which declares their country of tax residence and reports to that home authority rather than the IRS.
In practice you sign it if you want the account. The bank is required under the FATCA agreement to identify US persons and cannot fully open or maintain the account for a self-identified US person who will not provide a US TIN. Refusing does not exempt you from US reporting; it only risks the account being declined or restricted. Signing is the routine, low-friction path.
No. The W-9 is purely informational. It supplies your TIN so the bank can report, and it neither calculates nor collects any tax. Whether you owe US tax depends on your overall worldwide income and your US return; whether you owe Israeli tax depends on Israeli rules. The form at the counter is upstream of all of that.
Yes, if you are a US citizen or green-card holder. FATCA attaches to US-person status, not to the passport you happened to present. A US-Israel or US-UK dual citizen is fully inside FATCA, and the bank is expected to obtain the W-9 once it identifies any US indicia such as a US birthplace, US address, or US phone. Disclosing up front is cleaner than being re-identified later.
A W-9 is what a US person gives an institution to report under their US TIN. A W-8BEN is what a non-US person gives a US institution to claim treaty rates on US-source income. As a US citizen you use the W-9, never the W-8BEN, even though you now live in Israel. Submitting a W-8BEN to claim non-US status while holding a US passport misstates your status.
No, that is normal. Many Israeli banks collect the same information, namely name, US TIN, and US-person declaration, on their own compliance form rather than the literal IRS W-9. The legal effect is the same: you are certifying US-person status and supplying the TIN the bank needs to report under the FATCA agreement. Treat it as the W-9 equivalent and sign it.
Reporting is annual and automatic. The bank files once a year via the Israel Tax Authority, which exchanges the data with the IRS. You are not copied on each filing, but you can ask the bank for the FATCA data it holds on you, and the reported figures (year-end balance, interest paid) should match your own records and your US return. A mismatch between the bank's report and your self-reported numbers is the kind of discrepancy worth avoiding.
Because the bank screens every new customer for US indicia before deciding which form applies. A US birthplace, a US mailing address, or a US phone number can prompt questions even from someone who considers themselves wholly British, Canadian, or French. If you have no US-person status, you confirm that and sign the CRS self-certification instead. The screening is standard; it is not an accusation.
