Hi guys,

this might be a silly question. However, I'm a programmer, not an accountant and I want to do this right. Basically, I have the following questions:

1) Even though I'm not the US citizen I have the SSN. Should I include it in the form? If yes/no are there any consequences?

2) I'm not quite sure what should be filled in the section II.10 Special rates and conditions. Or should it remain empty?

3) How the taxation works? if I'm correct, Liferay takes 20%. When I submit the W-8BEN form, is the remaining 80% going to be transfered to my Paypal account or is it going to be taxed in the US? If so, do I need to tax it again in my home country (within the EU)?

Thanks a lot!

Hi Marcel,

Thanks for your question. Unfortunately, we're not accountants/lawyers either, so we are not allowed to provide you with any specific tax or legal advice. We can provide some general guidance, but everyone's situation is different, and you should consult with your accountant and/or lawyer for specific advice pertaining to your case. In general,

1. You say that you have a SSN - are you a US resident? The W8BEN instructions (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8ben.pdf) state: "You are a U.S. citizen (even if you reside outside the United States) or other U.S. person (including a resident alien individual). Instead, use Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification, to document your status as a U.S. person."

2. You should fill out Section II if you are a resident of a country that has a tax treaty with the US and you are claiming special tax treaty benefits. Again, we can't advise you on whether this section applies to you. The W8BEN instructions include a link to existing tax treaties, so you can look them up if you think this applies to you.

3. The remaining 80% will be transferred to you within 90 days unless it is subject to FATCA withholding (see our Developer FAQs for details). Whether or not this 80% would be subject to income taxes in your country is subject to the tax laws of your country. In general, it could be taxed in your country since it is considered to be income.

Sincerely,

jc

Hi JC,

thanks a lot for the answer. I'm still trying to find somebody who will help me and this is the first answer I received that makes sense. Even accountants don't have much experiences with it here. Maybe I was looking among wrong accountants, who knows. However,

1) I'm not the US resident nor the US citizen. I was studying in the US a couple of years ago and teaching a bit too. That's the reason I have the SSN. However, I'm not in the US for about 3 years now. I read the form instruction and line 5 says: If you have a social security number (SSN), enter it here. Furthermore, couple of lines below there is a list of "You must provide an SSN or TIN if you are:" instructions and one says: "Submitting the form to a partnership that conducts a trade or business in the United States". So thus I assume that my SSN should be included in the form. It's probably not going hurt anything if I include it there I just wanted to be sure since I clearly don't have any experiences with it.

2) Thanks for the clarification here. My country (Czech Republic) has an income tax treaty with the US so I will simply fill the II.9 part. The reason why I asked the question was my misunderstanding of the II.10 part. However, since "Line 10 must be used only if you are claiming treaty benefits that require that you meet conditions not covered by the representations you make on line 9 and Part III." i will leave it blank.

3) Perfect, thanks. So I just simply need to find a way how to tax it in my country and I'm done.

Thank you again for helping me with this.