iTunes Connect: Tax Info

I mange to fill in the first 5 points on the contract (my name and stuff), but form then on it gets a little blurry. If anyone could provide a little guidance it would be very much appreciated!

I'm an individual in Europe btw, so no sort of corparation or anything atm...

So: I need a US Taxpayer Identification Number? And from what I understand it's best to call the IRS and ask for one?

What do I check under "Claim of Tax Treaty Benefits"?

I have no idea what "Part III: Notional Principle Contracts" means at all and thus I also can't check Part IV where it threatens me with penalty if I don't know what I'm signing here...

Any advice?

How do I find a good lawyer and how much does one charge for an hour these days?

 

pretty much in the same spot, did you get any further?

 

(Note I am not a tax lawyer but I have stumbled up on some information about this on the net...)

Apparently you will need to obtain this US Taxpayer Identification Number (or TIN) in order to take advantage of any tax-treaty btw. the US. and your country. Otherwise Apple would be forced to subtract 30% of your earnings as US tax.

You can get the TIN by filing either a W-7 form (for individuals) or SS4 (for businesses.) These forms can be obtained at the IRS website: www.irs.gov. Completing this form will enable the US government to issue you a US TIN.

Here is some more information on claiming tax treaty benifits: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,,id=96438,00.html

 

I found this tax-stuff to be a big pain in the ***. I was close to letting them have their 30%...

On the back of form SS-4 there's one case that reads: "Is a foreign person needing an EIN to comply with IRS withholding regulations"

So even though I'm an individual I filled out this form and not W-7, namely everything that was needed for that case, called the IRS, submitted all the info over the phone and got an EIN after 10 mins of waiting. I don't understand much US-Tax-1337speak, but I hope that it will be alright this way... (If I suddenly vanish in the near future, fill form W-7 instead, because that would mean the IRS-Special-Ops came to get me...)

With my shiny new EIN I filled out the form W-8BEN on iTunes Connect. Point 10 was a bit tough to figure out, but after some thinking and discussing on IRC, I choose Article 12 (said something about Royalties) and 0% (that was under Copyright-Royalties/Other for my country). After clicking Submit, Apple emailed the prefilled form, I printed, signed and mailed it. Now I'm waiting to hear back...

 

Hi,

in a German forum I´ve found the information that you actually don´t need the US tax ID and can just type in 9 zeros (At least for Germany?):

http://www.osxentwicklerforum.de/thread.php?postid=75160

I guess I´ll ask apple directly and make sure what this is all about.

Marco

PS: /edit/: I´ve found another thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8105107&tstart=0#8105107

Really looks like the 9 zeros are okay...

 

It depends on your country!

I've had some mail talks with Apple finance guys and those told me that if there is a tax treaty contract between your country and the US there is then no need to request a EIN from the IRS.

The Apple guy then told me to simple enter 9 zeroes and that's all. Worked great for me, no tax is withhold. Germany signed the double tax treaty with the US in the mid 80's if I recall right.

As I got this information from Apple very late in the process I had meanwhile ordered an EIN from the IRS and got it a few weeks later shipped by mail. So although I have one now, I never gave it to Apple nor did they request it - an there is no tax withhold from Apple to me, got all money paid out.

My best advice: Write a mail to itunesondemand@apple.com and ask them. The mail usually gets forwarded within Apple very quickly and I received 2-3 days afterwards a mail from the Apple finnace guy.

 

Thanks for all the replies fellas, all very helpful in bringing some more light into this grey area weirdness feel
Ay Martin, you posted around 5 minutes after i had a phone call with the IRS to get an EIN. Haha. But yeah, i´ll just do it like you now and thanks to all the posts i feel way more secured on whether i filled it out right

 

First of all, let me introduce myself
I'm a 14-year old (young?) from Vienna/Austria and just about to get Unity iPhone.
I managed to get thru the Apple iPhone sign-up (enrolled as an individual, of course) and approval proceedings and ended up on the iTunes Connect W-8BEN form. I made it up to Part II item 9 where I get to fill out this:

- I checked this one.

- Not sure whether I should check this one as I entered "000000000" as the tax id in the field above...

- I think I should check this, though I'm not absolutely sure what this means. The last two are obvioulsly not to be checked.

I'm totally clueless about what to enter for item 10. Maybe Austria has some tax-treaty contract with the US; maybe this document can help? http://www.irs.gov/businesses/international/article/0,,id=169506,00.html

Thank you! :wink:

 

Alright, I figured out most of the form. What still remains are the "Article" field and withholding rate for Austria (line 10). According to the IRS website these are the same as for germany - if anyone could tell me what to put in there I'd be happy.

Edit: One more question, though. On the page where I have to provide my banking information; what do the account types Savings and Checking mean? In other words, could I possibly provide my "Sparbuch" (savings book) number when using savings as the type?

 

As I already posted above: I put in Article 12 and 0%... Not saying this is necessarily correct, but that's what I gathered from the linked documents...

No idea if a "Sparbuch" would work, I gave them a normal "Konto"...

 

As far as I know a Sparbuch is not able to receive money from outside your own country, at least that's it in germany like that.

 

Take "Checking". A checking account is a "Girokonto". I also don´t think that a "Sparbuch" will work...

Marco

 

Having helped a few friends navigate some of the US-specific banking terms, the whole "checking" account thing has thrown more than a few off.

In the US, bank accounts for most people can generally be divided into two types: checking and savings (there are more than just two kinds, but the majority of people have one or probably both of these). Both can be opened at your local bank, and you can go to the bank or an ATM and pull cash out of either (which would distinguish savings from a notice deposit account or similar in the UK). Typically, a savings account earns a slight interest rate, but you can't write checks out of it or use it with a debit card. A checking account usually wont earn any interest, but you can get faster access to the funds with checks or debit cards. I think in other countries these sometimes are called current accounts or demand accounts.