Some struggle with getting their W-8BEN accepted due to missing or wrong information. Here are a few links PLUS some tips on how to correctly fill in the confusing but crucial section PART II, Point 10.
How to find your country-specific treaty data and fill in the form correctly:
Find and open the most actual/newest tax treaty document between the US and your country
Search the Article that handles Royalties - in most cases, it’s Article 12 (e.g. UK, IT)
Now you need to find the correct paragraph that defines the tax rate for royalties for artistic works that applies to your situation. Both tax rate and paragraph vary from country to country and in some cases, it can get confusing. For Italy (my country), the article is 12, paragraph 3, and the rate is 0%. For the UK it’s article 12, paragraph 3, and the rate is 0%.
Download and open now the W-8BEN form and fill in your personal data - I won’t address this part, because it’s usually not a hassle.
In Part II / 10 fill in the fields as follows, according to the tax treaty document:
Article & Paragraph: Article & paragraph that describe your rate and situation, in the format: ART#(§#) - Examples: UK: 12(1) / IT: 12(3).
Rate (%): The % of the tax rate that has to be paid in the US. If the document states that the taxes are fully paid in your own country, the US tax rate to fill in is 0. Otherwise, enter the rate defined in the document. Examples: Italy and UK: 0 (no taxes have to be paid in the US).
Type of Income:“Royalties for the use of artistic work” or similar
Additional Conditions: This part is where most struggle and that causes most rejections. Write something like “Creation of artistic works (designs) sold on Zazzle online web stores on a range of goods.” (worked for me).
Sign the document either digitally or manually (print, sign, and take a pic) and send it via email to Zazzle either as a PDF or a well-readable JPG in the case of a manual signature.
Note that it can get a while until you receive a confirmation from Zazzle that the form has been accepted (even a month or longer). The rule no news = good news applies in this case.
To add a related question to your thread: often do I have to submit a W8BEN form?
After doing some digging about the WWW, I found this answer: “Unless your circumstances change dramatically, your W-8BEN form will typically remain in effect until the last day of the third calendar year after you sign it. For example, if you submit the form to a U.S. client on December 1, 2019, it will be effective until December 31, 2022.”
I submitted my W8BEN form within the past few days and was informed that 2-4 weeks would be the typical response time.
Yes, the forms are valid for 3 years, then you have to resubmit the newest release. I would do it 1 or 2 months before the validity expires to be on the safe side. 2-4 weeks response time is optimistic, it depends on the period of the year and the workload of CS. I got an answer pretty quick in a few weeks the first time when there was an issue (the infamous additional conditions entry). If I remember well (I may be wrong), I didn’t get a confirmation, though, after I resubmitted the corrected form. When I renewed the form, I didn’t get any confirmation but the payments kept getting paid regularly and correctly. That’s why no news = good news.
Update: added a comprehensive quick list from yale.edu showing the tax rates applying to artistic works for a whole bunch of countries. Please note that it may be outdated in some cases and that you still need to find out the related article’s paragraph. Use it for cross-checking. here’s the link:
One more very helpful link, containing a country list with article/paragraph and royalty rate, plus a shot of the form with filled-in content. Link courtesy of @waterart
I’m glad it helped and I hope it worked in your case. If not, stay tuned, I’ll update it with alternate phrasing as soon as I have the related info from the fellow designer who had some issues getting it accepted. Happy designing!
Update: the phrasing in my original post worked on the second attempt, so it’s all fine. If you (or anyone else reading this) have trouble, this shall work. Have a great day!
Most welcome. For Italy, the paragraph that handles artistic copyrights is 12(3), not (2). I quote:
" 3. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 2, royalties arising in a State and paid to a resident of the other State for the use of, or right to use, a copyright of literary, artistic
_ or scientific work (excluding royalties for computer software,_ motion pictures, films, tapes or other means of reproduction used for radio or television broadcasting) shall be taxable only _ in that other State if such resident is the beneficial owner
_ thereof."
Thank you for the step by step, but I’m still not sure to fill the ART and the rate, because there’s a difference in my country, should I go with this, article and paragraph : 13(2) and the rate 0% or 15% ?would you please check and thank you in advance https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/indo.pdf
Yes, you can basically take the wording and just replace your personal info and the correct paragraph and percentage. As replied above, in your case it’s 13(2) and 15%. If you have problems with acceptance despite all required data being filled in correctly and as a whole, you may try to change the wording of the description section with some alternate text other designers also posted here. Return to this post if you have troubles and we’ll have a look together. Good luck!
Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your help and guidance. I have submitted the form and filled it based on the source you shared from eezy’s table (13(b) 10%). If my submission gets rejected, I will make the necessary adjustments according to your suggestions. Thank you again for your support.
Careful. It’s NOT paragraph (b) that applies to artistic royalties, it’s (a) and the rate is 15%, NOT 10%. You need to fill in 13(2) and 15%, as I stated in my two replies.
Yes you’re right, I have revised it and now my form has accepted it’s 13(2) and thank you so much for your help, I really highly appreciate, thank you 🙏
I have submitted my W-8 BEN from on May 19 and I have received email for making some correction. So after doing all the necessary changes in my form I have submitted my W-8BEN form for review on June 8 and I have not received any answer from review team side. Can you tell me how long will it take.
It can take one month or longer. And in this case, no news = good news. I only got emailed the first time I submitted it and like most of us had to make corrections. I never got any emails after doing it right and the renewals afterward (you have to renew all 3 years). So no sleepless nights - wait until you get your first payment, check out if you got the whole amount according to your tax treaty %, and contact them in case something went wrong. In the latter case, they will credit you the missing part on your next payment, after the issue is settled.
