Amazon and foreign authors: ITIN question

Hi,

You have to wait until after you have published your book before you can get the form off Amazon you need to apply for an ITIN.

If you haven't resolved your tax status by the end of the tax year, they will pass this money to the IRS. You can still get it back at that point, it's just more hassle, so you should try and do it before then.

The portion of this 30% that will then be released depends on the tax treaty your government has with the US (it's all of it for a lot of countries). You can find a list on the IRS website.

For a handy guide on how to resolve your tax situation with Smashwords and Amazon, please visit here.

Just remember that you cannot sort out your tax situation until your books are actually on sale.

Dave

Don't know if this will be any help at all, but I blogged about getting my ITIN back in January:

http://scarlettparrish.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-this-uk-author-got-her-itin.html

Omg brb going to go kill myself.

I didn't fill in line h

*kicks self repeatedly*

argh argh argh argh.

*cries into beer*

omg and it cost so much to post it and they have my passport and now I want to stab myself in the eyes.

Todsplace said:

Wow, I didn't know that.

Thanks !

May I ask if it was hard to get your ITIN?

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Hi Tod,

I haven't done it yet. I only uploaded my first story 3 weeks ago, and my second one today, so things have been a bit crazy!

I have heard it's not as bad as it sounds.

Dave

@Todsplace yeah it is, but I worked out it would be cheaper to get a new passport if this one was stolen than to pay $50 for a notorized copy (yes, i am very clever, stop mocking me now, thanks)

And then after I made that brilliant financial decision, my government doubled the cost of all identification documents, like the penises they are.

Todsplace said:

Ah, okay. I'm glad to know that notorized documents are okay.

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You may want to double check who can notarize them. I think it varies depending on your country, but I was told that I had to have them notarized at a US embassy if I was Canadian (I later got the impression that I could have also had it done through an authorized IRS Acceptance Agent had there been one near me BUT I never looked into this).

scarletpeaches said:

Don't know if this will be any help at all, but I blogged about getting my ITIN back in January:

http://scarlettparrish.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-this-uk-author-got-her-itin.html

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That's really useful, thanks.

x

Ugh. shaldna x'd me. I feel so dirty.

If you can get to London, it's worth taking the IT1N form in person. The US tax office is at the American Embassy.

That's what I did, and I didn't have to leave my passport. They took a copy of it and my publishing contract, handed it back, and I was in and out in ten minutes.

Shara

Shara said:

If you can get to London, it's worth taking the IT1N form in person. The US tax office is at the American Embassy.

That's what I did, and I didn't have to leave my passport. They took a copy of it and my publishing contract, handed it back, and I was in and out in ten minutes.

Shara

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That is what I intend to do... looked at all the other options and they all involved either sending my passport away to the US (hmmm, not an option I am happy with, thank you, especially given the several months turn around), finding a notary in the UK who the US will accept (expensive from what I have seen and still involves travel to another city) or going to the embassy in person. Since going to the embassy will involve, basically, a train ticket (as opposed to a train ticket plus several hundred pounds to pay the notary) it seems like the best option.

Todspace: All you need to do to apply for a ITIN is have a letter from the publisher (or a contract or whatever - something official that proves you have a published work). You can do that as soon as you get an agreement (not sure how Amazon handle this, presumably you can get them to send you something?)

One thing to be aware of... I've been told that its not just the 30% tax that gets charged if you don't have one, there is also a fine for the publisher if they knowingly let you continue without one and they get audited and the IRS find they don't have a SSN or ITIN or equivilent listed for every person contracted to them. Apparently, this has been in place for a few decades but, pre financial crisis, they rarely bothered to check publishers (especially small press) so a lot stopped doing it. Now they are tightening up a lot, presumably to regain some cash in those 30%s of royalties and publisher fines.

Not that I have found yet... but I am still working through the reams of documentation that my publisher has sent me (including several blogs about this) to try to work out what needs to be done. Its a byzantine process.

I do know it can take several months once they have your passport. This is because it needs to be sent to an office in the US for processing (hence long transit time, hence them not getting my passport) and presumably it is one of those government funded offices where you have a couple of people (at most) working through a massive pile of envelopes every day. I am not kidding about this... someone in the NHS once told me that all the prescriptions from all over the country go to one office in Newcastle where a small staff have to go through and check them all for signatures and appropriate medical/maternity exemptions or a stamp that says 'paid'. Thats a lot of prescriptions for a very small staff...

Your passport doesn't get sent anywhere; I got mine back in about a fortnight. Possibly less than that as I recall. Once they've confirmed you're British and/or a UK resident, they don't need your passport any more, so send it back to you.

scarletpeaches said:

Your passport doesn't get sent anywhere; I got mine back in about a fortnight. Possibly less than that as I recall. Once they've confirmed you're British and/or a UK resident, they don't need your passport any more, so send it back to you.

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If you're Dutch, you can either go to the US embassy and get an embassy copy [they make a photocopy and have it stamped and signed], which will cost you 50 euro. Or you can send your passport to either Germany or the US and keep your fingers crossed that your document is returned to you.
If there's another method, I don't know yet.

Of course, if you find a trade publisher in the US, they're responsible for getting you an ITIN, or am I wrong here?

As far as I am aware, a trade publisher in the US is responsible for making sure you have one (or they could be fined) but they are not responsible for paying for it or doing any of the legwork around getting it...

i can understand the passport fear thing. it's an important document.

wouldn't it be nice to live in a country where you can have two different passports, for two different nationalities?






oh wait......i do.




seriously though, i have to say that the folks who do the admin on this kind of thing are great, and your stuff will be back to you asap.

the delay isn't them holding on to it - once they get it they photocopy it - the delay is how long it takes for the package to get to them, and having worked in government for a long time, I can tell you that i'm lucky if i get to open my letters in the same WEEK they arrive. Once they actually get to your application, things are pretty fast.

Sorry for reviving this old thread but I have a question regarding the ITIN process.

I am a foreign author (actually I'm an aspiring foreign author) from Malaysia and I am trying to self publish my work through the Amazon KDP.

My questions are:

1) Is it okay to apply for ITIN before I self publish my work or do I have to self publish first before I apply for ITIN?

2) Do I have to attach the federal tax return form if I apply before I self publish my work? (if the answer to 1) is yes)

3) Do I have to fill out the W-8BEN form even if my country does not have a tax treaty with the US?

I hope someone can help me with this.

I just need to make sure before I sent out my W-7 form.


Thank you.

Generally, to get an ITIN you need to have a letter from your publisher to say that you are being published. It is one of the requirements listed on the form. I am not sure how that works with self publishing because technically you count as your own publisher but I suspect there may be issues if you sent the form without the letter... I think Amazon do provide one for you if you self publish through them so check into that.

Referring back to the passport issues from earlier. I followed the advice of several and simply sent my passport to the US embassy in London. I made sure to send it recorded delivery (the maximum level which cost about £5). This means that the packet is tracked online (so you can put the tracking number into the royal mail webpage and find out if it has been delivered and who signed for it) which helps your peace of mind and also the contents of the package are insured. When you book it into the post office for this, they will ask you what value it is worth. Either find out what it costs to get a new passport (and quote that number) or (as I did cos I was too lazy/forgot to research the renewal cost) ask the person on the counter their opinion and they will tell you. Its something like £100.

I got my passport back within a week and it was sent using the same service I used to send it (which meant I had to sign for it and, had they lost it, I could have claimed the insurance for a renewal). So it really was not as bad as I thought it would be earlier on when I posted about preferring to do it in person.

[See me admit that I was wrong! You don't get to see that very often ]

dgaughran said:

Hi,


Just remember that you cannot sort out your tax situation until your books are actually on sale.

Dave

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Do you mean this for authors publlishing with Amazon etc?
Because my agent sent me a letter enabling me to apply for ITIN, even though my book has not even sold yet.