How to complete U.S. Tax Forms?

I haven't dare hit SUBMIT yet - but my reading of it is as follows (for a UK biz)

• 3 entity type is Corporation

• 9b enter your UK UTR

• 14a TICK!

• 14b TICK!

• 14b Type of LOB (this is where I'm not sure yet - but if I had to choose it'd be "Company that meets derivative benefits test")

• 15 don't do anything (according to the AppStore Connect tips document)

...so it's only 14b type of LOB that I'm not sure about...

I'm not a bean counter so don't trust the above. Still waiting to hear back from Apple support!

Cheers

Thanks a lot Scotty for this! I made the same enquiry with Apple Connect support as well and am waiting to hear back. In the meantime I am working on trying to get the screenshots in place :) I will share what they say here when I do hear back.

My UK accountant suggested i should choose “company with an item of income that meets active trade or business test” for 14b LOB, but she did say i should double check this as this is not in her area of expertises...

I put the same as Scotty has suggested and agree on selecting LOB type "Company that meets derivative benefits test".

I'm completely out of my depth filling this in, but through my reading the requirement for "company with an item of income that meets active trade or business test" suggests that business activities in your country of residence needs to be "substantial" in comparison to your U.S. activities. For me personally my U.S. sales are considerably higher than my U.K. sales so I wasn't sure I fulfilled that criteria.

Apple Developer Support got back to me, and they said "We are unable to assist you with your tax forms, as we are not tax professionals. However, we have a specific contact from for questions regarding tax and banking set up."

Link
https://developer.apple.com/contact/finance/

I have made an enquiry to them and hopefully they can provide some assistance.

I heard back from Apple Finance:

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Hello,

Since the App Store contracts are characterized as a "sales/commission" agreement, as opposed to a "royalty" agreement, there is no tax withholding for sales in the USA App and Book Stores.

Please refer to “Tips for Completing W-8BEN-E” and the IRS instructions within iTunes/App Store Connect prior to completing the form. Since every company’s situation is unique, it is advised that you speak with your tax professional for assistance.

Under our current model, application sales by non-U.S. developers or publishers on the App Store or Book Store are not subject to U.S. tax withholding or reporting. Therefore, completion of Part III - Claim of Tax Treaty Benefits, is not required in order to certify your foreign status. In addition, you are not required to provide a U.S. taxpayer identification number (TIN) in Part I (line 8) when when certifying foreign status.

Thank you.

 
Finance Support
Apple Media Services

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So it sounds like question 8, and entirety of 14 and 15 are to be left blank? Hope it's of use to someone here.

Many thanks rusty, that last paragraph from Apple finance is good to know!

Hello Rusty -

Find myself in the same situation and its driving me insane as there is so much conflicting information online - just wondering what you ended up doing?

I contacted apple support too and they reponsded with the same message - so my understanding from that is that actually we can leave Part III - Tax Treaty section (14 and 15) empty/unchecked...is that what you did? Additionally, leaving 8, 9b and 10 section also empty

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :-)

Hello Everyone,

I have the same problem. I am not sure which boxes to check or not. There are so many controversial information in the net.

We are Slovakian LLC.

Hello,

Do you guys have any updates on this topic? What did you do in the end? Left 14 and 15 to be blank?

Asking this for a Romanian SRL.

Thanks

For Singapore company, I leave 8, 10, 14 (#2 and #3 checkboxes) and 15 empty. I gave 9b. and ticked 14 #1.

Hello there,

I also have a limited company based in Romania and I've searched the internet for some guidance and i found out this great great blog post which explains how to correctly fill out the US Tax Form w-8ben-e for a limited company based in Romania. This is the link: https:// www .cristiangutu.pro /***-completezi-un-formular-w-8ben-e/ (sorry but i had to space out the url or else i wouldn't have been allowed to post it here, at all...)

If for some reasons the link gets outdated and won't work in the future I will explain here what's important:

For "8. U.S. taxpayer identification number (TIN), if required" you don't fill in anything, you leave it blank.

For "9b. Foreign TIN" you fill in your company's fiscal code not your national ID number (with or without the country code RO in front of the number).

For 9c if you have it leave it blank, the same for 10.

Now onto the fun part: Part III: Claim of Tax Treaty Benefits: For "14a and 14b" you check them both, leaving "14c (if you have it)" empty. For the dropdown option on 14b you select this: Type of limitation on benefits provisions: Company that meets the ownership and base erosion test.

For "15 Special rate and Conditions" you fill it like this:

The beneficial owner is claiming the provisions of Article and paragraph Article 7 - Business Profits of the treaty identified on line 14a above to claim a 0.00 % rate of withholding on (specify type of income): and here you only check the first option -> Income from the sale of applications.

Then for the explanation under "Explain the additional conditions in the Article the beneficial owner meets to be eligible for the rate of withholding" you type in this: The company is resident in Romania and does not carry on business in the United States nor does it have a permanent establishment in the United States. (Romania-US Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation of January 1st 1974).

Finally for "Part ***: Certification" you only check the first option and then sign your name, check anything else that you might have to check and submit the form.