foreign partner - doesn't have a ITIN or SSN

[DTNY07]

New partnership that was formed in 2023.  One of the partners is foreign.  No SSN and ITIN.

There was a loss for 2023.  So, while there didn't need to be any tax withheld for the foreign partner, this is still an issue.  It is a venture capital fund, so there won't be any profit for at least 5 years.  But, I told the GP to tell that partner he needs an ITIN.   There is another new partner for 2024 that will need one as well, but for now the 2023 return is my concern.  The GP said he had told the lawyer that formed the entity that there would be foreign partners, but that the lawyer didn't tell him anything about the foreign reporting.  No surprise there.  GP has been a client of mine for 30 years for his personal return, 5 years for another entity as well as a close friend of mind since kindergarten (which was 50 years ago), so I believe him  that he asked the lawyer.  Not, that it matters

While I have a few partnership clients with foreign partners. they all have had SSN or ITINs, so I haven't had this issue before.

The return is on extension and I didn't realize about the foreign partner until earlier this week.

I did a search on here and it seems putting ITIN as applied for and then mailing in  the return rather than e-filing was the only solution.  Which isn't ideal anyway, but with the K-3s starting in 2021, I know this is more on the radar.  Plus putting applied for on the Forms 5472, 8804 and 8805 seems like it would stand out to me.

Any suggestions on this?  I admit, I only do a handful of foreign partner returns, so I am far from an expert on this

Thanks in advance for any answers

[BobKamman]

I'm not sure why this sounds like an exercise in "Blame The Lawyer."  It's not the lawyer who is preparing the tax returns, right?  So your client / friend / kindergarten playmate should have asked you if there is anything you would need to prepare the tax returns.  And you would have pointed out the part in the 1065 instructions that says, "Foreign partners without a U.S. identifying number should be notified by the partnership of the necessity of obtaining a U.S. identifying number."

Then someone has to deal with the FinCEN reporting requirements.   Maybe you can blame the lawyer for not telling him about that one.  I think the rule for foreign partners on that one, though, is that a scan of the passport is acceptable.  

[DTNY07]

Someone else was going to be the CPA for this entity (I assume the other GPs CPA, but in the end it doesn't matter)   But, whoever he thought was going to do it, it fell through and then he asked me in early March.  At that point, I told him I would put it on extension.  As I cut off on taking returns on 3/5 that are due 3/15 and this was after that

The only reason I "blame" the lawyer is he asked the lawyer.  The lawyer could have said you need to speak to a CPA about that, rather than just say nothing extra needed to be done.