I believe that the IRS regulations is that a certain percentage is
retained for foreign nationals who are receiving funds in the US without
SSN.  I think they will have to pay 40% tax on any received funds
(honoraria).  No tax is applied towards reimbursements with a valid
receipts.  You can choose to pay them at a higher rate to cover the tax
burden if needed.
Hope this helps, we had to deal with a similar situation last year, so
this is still fresh on my mind :)
Rebecca

tom findley wrote:
> I have an NIH conference grant and we are providing honoraria for
> speakers. Does anyone know how we handle foreign nationals, who come
> to a conference in this country but do not have a social security
> number?  My accounting department (at the veterans biomedical Research
> Institute, a non profit which handles federal grants for my local VA
> medical center) insists on the social security number before they will
> issue the check, but since these people do not have green cards they
> are not eligible to apply for a SSN.
>
>
> Thomas W. Findley MD PhD
> Professor, New Jersey Medical School
> Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
> xxxxxx@umdnj.edu
>
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--
Rebecca Jean-Baptiste
Business Affairs Manager
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
Academic Affairs, P-16 Initiatives Office
270 Washington Street, SW
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
Phone:  (404) 656-2224
Fax:	  (404) 657-0336
xxxxxx@usg.edu

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 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
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