Consumer complaint received 2025-03-15 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Managing an account — Banking errors
Company: FIRST CITIZENS BANCSHARES, INC.

Complaint narrative:
Year after year, XXXX XXXX XXXX  is constantly failing to provide a common tax form ( Form 1042-S ) for its international customers.

My wife and I are non-resident aliens living outside the US.

We are holding two accounts at XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. 

Due to reciprocal tax arrangements between our country and the XXXX, we are subject to reporting our XXXX XXXX  accounts and revenues to our country 's local tax authorities. 
Such reporting is based on US Form 1042-S which - according to the American Tax Law - should be provided to any non-resident alien no later than XX/XX/XXXX of the year following the tax year in question. 

But, as mentioned earlier, XXXX XXXX Bank keeps sending 1099-INT tax forms ( intended for US citizens only ) to its international customers, instead of the needed 1042-S forms. 

=== What happened LAST YEAR === Last year, the bank sent us Form 1099-INT instead of Form 1042-S. After FIVE MONTHS of futile begging, I had to file a complaint with the CFPB ( complaint # XXXX ). Only after the CFPB stepped in did the bank finally sent us our Form 1042-S for XXXX. 

And what was then the bank 's " excuse '' : " The Bank attempted to issue the 1042-S ; however, there was a system error, and the form was not produced/issued. The Bank diligently worked to correct the system error, but we have been unable to do so. As a result, the Bank manually issued the 1042-S for the CD and the Account on XX/XX/XXXX '' === What happened THIS YEAR === This year, in a futile attempt to preempt the problem, I emailed the bank 's customer service on XX/XX/XXXX and reminded them to send us not the 1099-INT forms, but the 1042-S forms for XXXX. 

It took customer service four days! to answer that I must phone them " so we can contact the tax documentation department on your behalf ". 

What? I emailed them back that no phone call is necessary because the bank already has all the information needed to issue a common generic form like XXXX XXXX. 

After four more days! they emailed that " Since we do not have access to this type of customer information in this department, we have forwarded your concerns to the management team at your branch '' In other words : we do not know how to do our job, and we do not care either, so we have forwarded " concerns '' to your branch Never in my life have I seen such bad and useless customer service! Rest assure that my branch manager is also useless he did nothing, exactly as nobody else in the bank, including him, did nothing last year Bottom line : unsurprisingly, once again, we received two Forms 199-INT for XXXX, instead of two Forms XXXX XXXX year in a row! 

Well, last year the bank was not ashamed to claim that they could not have provided tax forms because they were " unable to correct a system error ''. I wonder what their excuse will be this year This is really unbelievable! This bank is one of the XXXX largest banks in the US, but clearly still has the mentality of a regional bank, and its infrastructure, as well as its employees, has not yet made the necessary leap to be able to serve international customers. When will they ever learn???

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation