Filling out the W-8 BEN form at DepositPhotos

Recently, the stock agency Depositphotos sent out a letter to all authors regarding the necessity of filling out a tax form from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for non-U.S. authors (+ the instructions for filling out form W-8 BEN):

Dear authors,

Depositphotos would like to inform you about our new tax center (Tax Center), established in accordance with U.S. federal tax law regarding sales made within the United States, and we have prepared a guide for completing the IRS form.

Sales tax will apply to all sales made by buyers in the United States, with a tax rate varying from 0% for U.S. authors to 30% for sellers from countries without tax treaties with the U.S. For authors from countries with such treaties, the tax rate will be set according to the terms of the agreement.

Please visit our tax center in your personal account on the stock site and, following the guide, fill out the necessary tax form(s). If you are a U.S. resident, you need to fill out form W-9. Authors from other countries should fill out form W-8 BEN.

Since the launch of the tax center at Depositphotos, until you fill out forms W-9 or W-8 BEN, sales taxes will be calculated based on the country specified in your profile upon registration. If you do not manage to fill out form W-8 BEN within a month, we will calculate taxes at the highest rate of 30% until your residency country is documented.

Please fill out the necessary form as soon as possible. If you are unsure which form you should fill out, consult your tax advisor.

For more detailed information about our tax center and to determine which tax form you need to fill out, please visit the tax center page or contact our author support.

Depositphotos hopes you understand the necessity of this procedure for our mutual benefit, as the legality of stock operations is also a guarantee of your security and your funds. We believe that the rapid growth of our sales from our non-American buyers more than compensates for these recently introduced sales tax deductions.

Sincerely yours, the Depositphotos team.

In connection with this, every author of the stock agency should fill out the U.S. tax form W-8 as soon as possible to avoid losing 30 percent of their earnings from image sales in the U.S.

Instructions for filling out W-8 BEN

For residents of countries that have a tax treaty with the U.S. (the list of countries and tax rates can be found in the tax center), and not representing organizations, this is done according to the following algorithm (instructions for filling out the W-8 BEN tax form are also applicable for other stock agencies):

1. Go to the tax center page of Depositphotos;
2. In the second point, select sub-point “A”;
3. In the dropdown menu, look for the description of Group A2, find the link to fill out the W-8BEN form, and click on it;
4. Point 1 is filled in automatically, information taken from your profile;
5. Point 2 is marked as “N/A”;
6. In point 3, select “Individual”;
7. In point 4, check the correctness of your address in Latin;
8. Point 5 is necessary for those whose registered address differs from their residential address. Also in Latin;
9. In point 6, select “I have no SSN, ITIN or EIN”;
10. Points 7 and 8 will be left blank;
11. In point 9, in sub-point “a”, the country of residence is already indicated (taken from your profile), if it is missing, enter it yourself;
12. The remaining sub-points of W-8 will be ignored;
13. In point 10, the tax rate is already indicated. You can check the tax rate in the tax center on the site;
14. Skip the rest;
15. At the very end, under the inscription “Please enter your full name as a digital signature in the box below (must match Name part of this form)”: enter your last name in Latin as it was indicated in point 1 (you can copy it) and click the “Submit” button;
16. Now just wait for the tax form approval by the administration of the Depositphotos stock agency.

Good luck!

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