dgandley wrote:
if I didn’t catch it they would have kept the funds fraudulently, which to my mind is stealing.
Nope, not true at all. The money withheld is sent to the IRS. You would see it on your 1099-INT as Tax Withheld and you would get all that money back after filing your income tax, depending on your income and filing status.
Even if you are not required to file income tax based on your income, it can still be filed to have any withheld tax returned to you.
As for the customer service agent not providing an explanation to you, it would not be unusual for them to not know the reason, and only able to provide a solution for you like they did. Due to the banking regulations that every financial institution must follow, there are times when information will not be given to you and by law they cannot even tell you why, and that information would not even be given to a customer service agent or available from a supervisor. The specific law is called the Bank Secrecy Act and it really does mean just that. I would not even speculate why they are requiring you to send in the W-9 after you already certified that the information you provided when the account was set up is correct. The W-9 (or equivelant) is nothing more than a statement by you certifying that the SS#/TIN you provided is correct, and matches the name you provided, along with agreeing to a couple of statements.
