It's time to pay tax in the US!
Thursday, September 8, 2005 at 09:15AM Oh yes, if you want to sell music online in the US, then ole Uncle Bill wants to clip your ticket on the way past.
The US government requires all payments to non-US entities have 30% of the payment withheld unless the proper documentation is received to lower the withholding rate to the agreed upon treaty rate. If you’re in the US, the paperwork they need completed is the W-8BEN. Payments are held until the W-8BEN is received. Could be worse; they could just not pay.
If you don’t have a US tax identification number, get the SS-4 form you receive from Apple first and fax it in to the number in the US they supply.
Once you receive the tax number, you complete the W-8BEN form items number 1 thru 6, 9a, b, c, and 10, sign and send back to Apple in hardcopy.
If you hear nothing back in four weeks, email them and follow it up - paperwork has been known to disappear and get mislaid.
More to come on this topic…
