Withholding tax on payments to non-US, non-EU advertisers?

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Withholding tax on payments to non-US, non-EU advertisers?

professionalnoob

2:18 pm on May 7, 2013 (gmt 0)

Dear all,
I am a publisher from a non-US, non-EU country. In the country I live, income from royalties of websites are tax-exempt, but the company has to pay withholding tax, if it is a local company.

When I consulted my tax advisor, he asked me to find out, if Google is paying any taxes to the US when they are transferring my cheque (like a withholding tax - as I am not a resident in US, US might want to cut off the tax at the source). This way, I can show my tax office that the tax has been already paid and I do not need to pay taxes again in my country (as US and my country has an agreement to prevent double taxation).

Does anybody know about this? Does Google pay US any withholding tax for my revenue? (to compensate for the "profit-tax loss" for the US government). Any suggestions how to check it?

Thank you.

netmeg

3:51 pm on May 7, 2013 (gmt 0)

Google doesn't withhold any taxes as far as I know. I started out with an account in my personal name, and then I formed a corporation and created an account for the corporation, and Google does not withhold any taxes for either.

professionalnoob

3:57 pm on May 7, 2013 (gmt 0)

Are you non-US as well?

netmeg

6:08 pm on May 7, 2013 (gmt 0)

Oh, nope, sorry, guess I read it wrong? I'm US. But we have a lot of non-US members here and I don't think I've ever heard of Google withholding taxes for anyone.

professionalnoob

6:16 pm on May 7, 2013 (gmt 0)

I really don't know. Since Google is trying to make sure to learn if your activities are US based or not when you are trying to complete the payments setup in Adsense, I'm guessing out of US payments by Google might be subject to some rules.

HuskyPup

8:07 pm on May 7, 2013 (gmt 0)

Welcome to WebmasterWorld professionalnoob

I believe the only country where there is an issue is Ireland since Google has payment offices there.

swa66

8:32 pm on May 7, 2013 (gmt 0)

Way back Google US paid us Europeans directly (via a US cheque). In theory they should make you fill out one of the W8 tax forms (W9 is for the US), but they never did and instead moved us to a contract with Google Ireland.
Google back then did not withhold taxes.

The first thing is: Which of these is your contract with:
- Google Inc. -> [support.google.com...]
- Google Ireland -> [support.google.com...]
- Google Advertising (Shanghai) Company Limited -> [support.google.com...]

Fill in where you're located there and it should tell you the details for your situation.

IanCP

10:51 pm on May 7, 2013 (gmt 0)

Google withhold nothing to Australia.