For non-U.S residents who earned money from U.S based online affiliate programs, you will be asked to submit a W8 form. Don’t be frightened by this U.S government document. It is very easy to fill in the form. I’ll show you how.

W8 form or W-8BEN is the “Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding”. It is required by the U.S. based company so that they don’t need to report to the U.S. tax office about any income
paid to you.

You may download W8 form here(PDF), but normally, the affiliated company will send you a copy.

After downloaded the W8 form, we need to print it. Fill the form and submit back to the company. You may either submit by fax or mail. No email submissions.

Filling W8 form

Here, I will show you how to fill in the W8 form. The W8 form is divided into four parts.

Part I: Identification of Beneficial Owner

Fill in the following fields:
* 1. Name of Individual or organization that is the beneficial owner — Your full name.
* 2. Country of incorporation or organization — Your Country
* 3. Type of beneficial owner — tick “Individual”
* 4. Permanent residence address… — Your mailing address, with city/town, state, postal code, and country

Part II: Claim of Tax Treaty Benefits

On line no.9 “I certify that (check all that apply):”, tick “a The beneficial owner is a resident of …” and fill in your country in the blank field.

Part III: Notional Principal Contracts

Tick line no.11, “I have provided or will provide a statement that ….”.

Part IV: Certification

Sign your signature at “Sign Here” and fill in the Date. Note that it is in the MM-DD-YYYY format, month comes first before date. Example: 04-10-2010.

You’re done! Fax or mail the W8 form back to the company. They should have provided the fax number and company mailing address. Also, the country code for U.S. is 1 (One).