The W-8BEN is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mandated form to collect correct Nonresident Alien (NRA) taxpayer information for individuals. The form is used to establish each NRA’s foreign status plus to exempt them from Form 1099 reporting.
NRA’s are subject to U.S. tax at a 30% rate on income they receive from U.S. sources. However, the IRS determines the source of freelancer Personal Services as being “where the services are performed”. As long as our freelancers deliver the services outside of the US, are not US citizens and send us a completed W-8BEN form they are exempt from the 30% US withholding tax.
Worksome requires a completed Form W-8BEN from each affected freelancer before we make payment to them. Because of this we will block their payments but release this block as soon as they send us a correctly completed form.
The IRS publication on this type of withholding tax can be found here. Relevant sections have been highlighted and you are free to share this externally.
Please use this link if you require assistance with filling out the form.
📝 Steps to upload your W-8BEN form to your file bank on the Worksome platform.
Click on W-8BEN to download the form.
After filling out the W-8BEN form please save it with your changes as a personal PDF file. Once this has been completed, go ahead and login to your Worksome account.
On the left side of your dashboard, click on "Documents".
Once you are in your Documents page, click on the "Upload" button at the top right of the page.
Then choose the W-8BEN file that you have made changes to. Once it has been uploaded, you should see the file in your documents list.
Once this has been confirmed, you are all set! 👍🏼
As always: if you have any questions, please reach out to our support team! 🤩