Introduction to DAC7

DAC7 refers to newly introduced information reporting laws in the European Union (EU), specifically EU Council Directive 2021/514. These laws require companies like Patreon to collect and report the taxpayer information of sellers (creators) who earn certain income on Patreon.

Who does DAC7 apply to?

DAC7 applies to EU-resident creators on Patreon who earn money on Patreon from providing certain services and/or tangible goods. Income earned from providing these services and/or tangible goods is referred to as “reportable income”. Please see below for more in-depth information about what income is reportable.

If you are resident in one of the 27 EU Member States and you have reportable income on Patreon, we are required to share data about you, including your reportable income, with the tax authorities in the EU. For DAC7 purposes, you are resident in the country where you have your primary address.

In addition, if you have been issued a tax identification number (TIN) in an EU Member State(s) other than the country you are resident in, the information may also be shared with the tax authority of the country(ies) where a TIN has been issued.

The first reporting by Patreon is due by January 1, 2024 and will include creators who signed up to Patreon on or after January 1, 2023.

In which countries does DAC7 apply?

DAC7 applies to residents of the 27 EU Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

What is “reportable income” on Patreon?

As mentioned above, reportable income includes income from providing certain services (i.e. certain benefits) as well as tangible goods. “Certain services” includes the following benefits on Patreon:

• Commissions
• Live chats
• Fan requests
• Member shout-outs
• Phone calls
• Any other personal services which include services carried out at the request of a user, either online (e.g., tutoring, consultations and IT services) or physically offline after having been facilitated through Patron (e.g., transportation, delivery services, housekeeping, renovation work, in-person counseling).

How is reportable income calculated by Patreon?

If you have weighted your benefits (in advanced sales tax settings), then we will measure reportable income based on the weighting you have assigned to each benefit in a tier. If you have not weighted your benefits, we will report the full income of any tier which has any of the reportable benefits.

If you have not assigned any benefits to your tiers, we will reach out to you individually to confirm whether you have reportable income or not, based on our understanding of the information provided in your Tier(s).

Please note that payments which are of a support nature will be reportable insofar as they accompany benefits which otherwise fall within the scope of reportable income.

What data is required to be shared with the EU tax authorities?

If you are an individual:

• First name
• Last name
• Address of primary residence (including country of residence)
• Date of birth
• Amount paid by your Patreon members in respect of reportable income (excluding taxes)
• Amount of fees paid by you to Patreon in respect of that reportable income
• Tax Identification Number (TIN) in country of primary residence
• Tax Identification Number(s) (TIN(s)) in any other EU country (if applicable), including the EU country of issuance
• Where a TIN is not available, place of birth
• VAT registration number, where available
• Financial account identifier(s) i.e. identifier of the account to which payments are made to you (PayPal, Stripe, etc.)
• Name of holder of account into which the payment is made if not the creator’s account.

If you are a business entity:

• Company/legal name
• Company registered address
• Company registration number (business registration number)
• Tax identification number (TIN) in the country of residence
• TIN in each other country where registered for tax (if applicable), including the EU country of issuance
• VAT identification number, if registered for VAT
• Amount paid by your Patreon members in respect of reportable income (excluding taxes)
• Amount of fees paid by you to Patreon in respect of that reportable income
• Financial account identifier(s) i.e. identifier of the account to which payments are made to you (PayPal, Stripe, etc.)
• Details of any EU Member State where the company/business has a permanent establishment through which relevant activities are carried out in the EU

You can provide the information we require from you by completing the “Non-US Individual Tax Form”, which is located in Settings > Billing & Payouts.

DAC7 requires Patreon to share your taxpayer information with a tax authority in the EU. Patreon Inc. is not itself tax resident in any EU Member State, and as a result will report the data/information with the Irish tax authorities. The Irish tax authorities will then share the information with the other tax authorities in the EU.

How often will I be required to provide this information?

DAC7 is an annual reporting requirement. Patreon is therefore required to share your information every year, and the information for a given reporting year will be shared during January of the year following the reporting period. For example, information relating to the 2023 calendar year will be shared with the tax authorities in January 2024.

We ask you to confirm or update your relevant information yearly to ensure that the information we are reporting is accurate for the relevant reporting period.

What is a Tax Identification Number (TIN)?

A Tax Identification Number (TIN) is a number assigned to individuals/businesses to identify them for income tax purposes. This can be called different things in different countries, but generally everyone is assigned a TIN.

For individuals, this may be referred to as any of the following:

• Tax Identification Number
• Tax Number
• Unified Civil Number
• Personal Identification Number
• Central Person Registration Number
• Personal Public Service (PPS) Number
• Personal Identity Number
• Identity Card Number
• National Identification Number
• Social Security Number

If you are an individual, you can find more information about where you can find your TIN here.

For companies/businesses, a TIN may be referred to as any of the following (please note that this is different from your VAT registration number, if applicable):

• Tax Identification Number
• Tax Number
• Tax Registration Number
• Business Identification Number
• Business Identification Code
• Company Registration Number
• Company Number
• Unified Identification Code
• CVR Number
• SE Number
• Organization Number

Please see below for confirmation of the expected format of TINs in your country. Please note that when providing us with your TIN on the tax form, you should exclude any characters such as “-” or “/”.

I have more than one Tax Identification Number (TIN). How do I add all TINs?

When completing the “Non-US Citizen Tax Form” (individuals) or the “Non-US Entity Tax Form” (entities), you can provide us with multiple TINs. For each individual TIN, please select the country of issuance and provide the number. Please refer to the above table for the expected format for TINs in all of the EU Member States.

What happens if I don’t provide my taxpayer information?

If, based on the information available to us, we believe you are an EU-resident creator for DAC7 purposes, we will still report as much information as we have about you (e.g. name & country). This will be based on information you may have previously provided on your W8 form or any other information available to us.

Important: If you do not provide us with the information we request from you to be able to comply with these information reporting rules, we are required to freeze your payouts until you do so. For creators who joined Patreon on or after January 1 2023, if you have not provided us with the information by January 15, 2024, we will be forced to freeze your payouts until you do.

I made an error when filling out the form, can I update the information?

Yes - simply complete the form again and provide the correct information. Visit your Settings > Billing & Payouts to complete the form again.

I am not resident in the EU, does this apply to me?

No, if your primary address is not in the EU, then DAC7 does not apply to you.

Can the Tax Authorities review my income tax returns for past years?

We will only report income earned from 2023 onward. However, the tax authorities in all countries generally have the power to review income tax returns to confirm you have paid the correct amount of tax. Generally, there is a time limit for how long after an income tax year the tax authorities can review your returns, but this varies from country to country. As a reminder, you are always responsible for paying local income taxes on your funds earned through Patreon. If you have any doubt about your tax returns, you should contact your accountant or local tax advisor.

If I deactivate my Patreon account, will my information be shared?

Your information will be reported if you earned income on Patreon in 2023 if you are a resident of one of the 27 EU Member States and earned reportable income on Patreon.