In this article, we’ll go through
- Who needs to submit a form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E
- Where do I submit this form with Patreon
- What is the "Claim of Tax Treaty Benefits” section
Do I need to submit a W-8BEN?
All creators who are not US citizens must submit a W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E in order to pay out their funds. This form ensures that the IRS knows that earnings you make on Patreon are not subject to US income tax.
Where do I submit my W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E form?
To complete a W-8BEN form for your Patreon, follow the directions below:
- Log in to your Patreon account.
- Once logged into your account click the Settings button in the left menu to open your Settings.
- Click into the Payouts and Taxes tab from the menu bar.
- Scroll to the Tax settings section at the bottom of the page.
- Click on the Fill out W-8BEN form or Fill out W-8BEN-E button to electronically complete a form.
For detailed instructions on how to complete your W-8BEN form, we recommend reviewing:
Line 8.
If you are providing this Form W-8BEN to document yourself with respect to a financial account that you hold with a U.S. office of a financial institution, provide your date of birth. Use the following format to input your information MM-DD-YYYY. For example, if you were born on April 15, 1956, you would enter 04-15-1956
What is the "Claim of Tax Treaty Benefits” section?
If you are completing a W-8BEN form, you’ll have the option to answer the question "Are you claiming tax treaty benefits?” with a yes or no answer. If you answer “yes” here’s additional information for Line 9.
Line 9.
If you are claiming treaty benefits as a resident of a foreign country with which the United States has an income tax treaty for payments subject to withholding under chapter 3, identify the country where you claim to be a resident for income tax treaty purposes. For treaty purposes, a person is a resident of a treaty country if the person is a resident of that country under the terms of the treaty. A list of U.S. tax treaties is available at http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Tax-Treaties.
If you are an EU creator, we’ve created this Frequently Asked Questions guide to help you navigate through how taxes work on Patreon: EU Creator: Frequently Asked Tax Questions
