Form 8813: Section 1446 Withholding Voucher for Foreign Partners

Form 8813 is the payment voucher a partnership sends with each quarterly installment of Section 1446 withholding tax on effectively connected taxable income allocated to its foreign partners.¹ The installments fall on the 15th day of the 4th, 6th, 9th, and 12th months of the partnership’s tax year, and the obligation applies whether or not any cash is distributed to the partner.

When Form 8813 Is Required

Two conditions have to be met. The partnership must have effectively connected taxable income (ECTI), meaning gross income from a U.S. trade or business reduced by deductions tied to that income, and it must allocate a share of that ECTI to at least one foreign partner.² Foreign partners include nonresident alien individuals, foreign corporations, foreign trusts, and foreign estates. Gains from the sale of U.S. real property interests count as ECTI as well.

Whether the partner will actually owe U.S. tax at year-end does not matter. Treaty benefits or partner-level deductions may zero out the final liability, but the partnership still has to withhold and deposit during the year.³ The partner recovers the withheld tax later as a credit on their own return.

The $500 Threshold

Quarterly installments are only required if the total Section 1446 tax on ECTI allocated to all foreign partners will be $500 or more for the year.⁴ Below that, the partnership can skip Form 8813 and simply pay the full amount with the annual Form 8804. Most partnerships with active U.S. operations clear $500 quickly.

How Much to Withhold

The partnership applies the applicable rate to each foreign partner’s share of ECTI. The default rates are 21% for corporate foreign partners and 37% for noncorporate foreign partners (nonresident alien individuals, foreign trusts, and foreign estates).⁵ Those figures come out of Section 1446(b), which points to the highest rates under Section 1 and Section 11(b).⁶

For income taxed at a preferential rate (long-term capital gains, for example), the partnership may withhold at the highest rate that actually applies to that income type rather than the flat 37%, provided it has proper documentation on file.⁵ A noncorporate partner whose ECTI is entirely long-term capital gain can be withheld on at 20%.

Form 8804-W is the IRS worksheet built for these calculations across installment periods.⁴ It is not mandatory, but the partner-by-partner, income-type-by-income-type math makes it useful in practice.

Reducing Withholding with Form 8804-C

A foreign partner who expects a lower actual U.S. tax liability than the standard withholding can give the partnership Form 8804-C, certifying partner-level deductions, losses, or credits that reduce or eliminate the tax on their share of ECTI.⁷ When the partnership relies on that certificate to reduce an installment, it must attach the Form 8804-C to the Form 8813 for the first installment period the certificate is considered, along with a statement showing how the reduced tax was computed.⁸ If the IRS later finds the certificate invalid, the partnership owes the shortfall.

Quarterly Due Dates

Payments are due on the 15th day of the 4th, 6th, 9th, and 12th months of the partnership’s tax year. For a calendar-year partnership, that means April 15, June 15, September 15, and December 15. A weekend or federal holiday pushes the deadline to the next business day.⁴

Each installment reflects the cumulative Section 1446 liability accrued through the end of that period, minus what was already paid in earlier installments. The partnership recalculates each quarter based on updated income figures rather than sending in one-quarter of a static annual estimate.

Filling Out and Submitting the Voucher

Form 8813 itself is short. Line 1 takes the partnership’s name, address, and Employer Identification Number. If the EIN has been applied for but not yet issued, the partnership enters the application date instead. Line 2 is the payment amount.⁸

Payments by check or money order go to:

Internal Revenue Service Center
P.O. Box 409101
Ogden, UT 84409⁹

Write the partnership’s EIN, the tax year, and “Form 8813” on the check. Do not staple the voucher to the payment.

Paying Through EFTPS

Electronic payments through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System are an accepted alternative to mailing a check.⁸ A new EFTPS enrollment takes up to five business days to process, so first-time filers should register well before the first quarterly deadline.¹⁰

How Form 8813 Connects to the Year-End Filing

The quarterly 8813 payments are interim deposits. The full year gets reconciled on two annual forms filed together:

Form 8804 reports the partnership’s total Section 1446 liability for the year and transmits all Forms 8805.
Form 8805 is an information statement for each foreign partner showing their share of ECTI and the withholding credit allocated to them. Copy A attaches to Form 8804; Copy B goes to the partner.

Both are filed at the same Ogden address used for Form 8813.⁹ The deadline is the 15th day of the third month after the close of the partnership’s tax year (March 15 for calendar-year filers). Partnerships that keep books outside the United States and Puerto Rico get an automatic extension to the 15th day of the sixth month. Form 7004 is available for a further automatic extension of the filing deadline, but it does not extend the payment deadline.⁸

What Happens If You Miss a Payment

The partnership carries primary liability for Section 1446 tax. If it fails to withhold, the partnership owes the tax itself, not just the foreign partner.² Late deposits trigger a tiered failure-to-deposit penalty:

1 to 5 calendar days late: 2% of the unpaid deposit
6 to 15 calendar days late: 5%
More than 15 calendar days late: 10%
More than 10 days after the first IRS notice, or on demand for immediate payment: 15%¹¹

Interest runs on underpaid withholding from the due date until it is paid. The IRS underpayment rate for the first quarter of 2026 is 7%, compounded daily.¹² A separate underpayment penalty on the quarterly installments is calculated on Schedule A of Form 8804 and works like the estimated tax penalty individuals and corporations face.⁴ Additional penalties apply for failing to file Form 8804 or failing to furnish Form 8805 to foreign partners.

Reasonable Cause Relief

The IRS may waive failure-to-deposit and underpayment penalties if the partnership shows reasonable cause. The standard is ordinary care that still resulted in an inability to pay on time. Fires, natural disasters, serious illness, and system failures affecting an electronic payment are recognized. Reliance on a preparer, unfamiliarity with the rules, or oversight generally are not. Lack of funds alone does not qualify, though it can support a reasonable cause argument when combined with other facts showing the partnership tried to comply.¹³

When Form 8813 Is Not the Right Form

A few situations look like Section 1446(a) withholding but use a different procedure. Section 1446(f) governs the sale or exchange of a partnership interest by a foreign partner; the buyer withholds 10% of the amount realized, and Form 8813 does not apply.² Publicly traded partnerships under Section 7704 withhold from actual distributions to foreign partners and report on Forms 1042 and 1042-S, not on the 8804/8805/8813 series.¹⁴ And in tiered structures, a domestic upper-tier partnership handles its own foreign partners’ withholding; the lower-tier partnership does not withhold on the domestic upper-tier’s share, even when that upper-tier has foreign partners of its own, under Treasury Regulation 1.1446-5.

1
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8813, Partnership Withholding Tax Payment Voucher (Section 1446)
2
Internal Revenue Service. Partnership Withholding
3
Internal Revenue Service. Helpful Hints for Partnerships with Foreign Partners – Section: Withholding on Foreign Partners Effectively Connected Taxable Income (ECTI)
4
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8804-W (WORKSHEET) (2026)
5
Internal Revenue Service. Who Must Withhold on Partnership Withholding – Section: Tax Rate
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 1446 – Withholding of Tax on Foreign Partners Share of Effectively Connected Income
7
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8804-C, Certificate of Partner-Level Items to Reduce Section 1446 Withholding
8
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 8804, 8805, and 8813
9
Internal Revenue Service. Reporting and Paying Tax on Partnership Withholding – Section: Form 8813
10
Internal Revenue Service. EFTPS: The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System
11
Internal Revenue Service. Failure to Deposit Penalty – Section: How We Calculate the Penalty
12
Internal Revenue Service. Interest Rates Remain the Same for the First Quarter of 2026
13
Internal Revenue Service. Penalty Relief for Reasonable Cause
14
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.1446-4 – Publicly Traded Partnerships