How to fill out the W-8BEN

A Canadian consultant working for a US company is asked to provide a completed W-8Ben. What is a W-8BEN, and how do you complete one?

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Some American payers are obliged by law to withhold tax on income they pay to their subcontractors, which makes sense if those subcontractors are American and subject to US tax laws. But a consultant who is based outside the US and is not a US citizen is not subject to those withholding laws.

US payers can be penalized by the IRS if they don’t withhold tax properly. To be safe, they need to have a document on file to show that you (their payee) are exempt from these taxes. That’s the role of the W-8BEN.

1:30 Looking at the form part by part

The W-8BEN can look intimidating at first glance, in reality but it breaks down into three basic sections.
Part I – Identification
This part asks for your name, address, and foreign identifying tax number. Being Canadian, you can use your social insurance number (SIN) as your foreign tax number.

Part II – Why you are exempt
In this part you explain why you are exempt. As a consultant based in Canada, you only have to complete Question 9 by entering Canada in the blank space. Question 10 can be ignored in this case because it doesn’t apply.

Part III – Signature
And finally, part three is where you sign and date.

Send the completed and signed form off to your US client and that's it.
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Did you know Personal Tax Advisors files your GST/HST for free?

[personaltaxadvisors]

Did you know Personal Tax Advisors files your GST/HST for free?

[aca-scuseyou]

This has got to be the best explanation out there. After scrolling through unnecessary filler videos this was truly a breath of fresh air💗 the perfect explanation

[ssrakeshsharma]

Finally, I found someone who explained this in so simple way 🙂 .

[Aminu_Munira]

Thanks. I was overwhelmed reading the instructions

[johnpapanikamara]

The best explanation I was searching for in 2024 😀 Thanks Sunny

[bradleymah]

Thanks this makes my life easier. I was putting this off for so long cause i was trying to understand the 12 pages of instructions the form comes with. Seems silly how my broker mails me this form in Canada and then i just enter all the info they already have onto the form, sign it, and send it back to them.

[emilychin]

I have a cottage in which I run as an Airbnb. They are asking for the W-8BEN otherwise the IRS may withhold %30 of my income. So glad to watch this and put my mind at ease. Thanks so much!

[khatoutoukhatouta]

It helped me! As a freelancer, a client to pay me asked me to fill it.

[d.g.k]

Thank you so much for this video. I saw those treaty documents and was lost immediately. Thanks for being concise and informative🙏🏾

[meaghanmurphy]

thank you sooo much, this was beyond helpful! I was so overwhelmed by the form until I found this video!

[EdvvinWang]

So glad to found this video. Your explanation is the clearest and shortest among others haha... Immediately I get the big picture. Extremely thankful to you dear

[tinablair]

This was what I was looking for. My search had a hard time finding this exact info. Thank you for making this so I could feel more confident that I was submitting the correct form... correctly.

[igmichaelschaper]

Wow! This was so helpful. I'll admit, I was overwhelmed when the 'IRS' name gets thrown around, but this immediately brought some peace.

[LifewithParkinsons]

Thank you for making this video, there is definitely a need out there to help Canadian content creators with the IRS tax requirements, and very few videos that actually help. Just sent my W-8BEN forms into YouTube. Been trying to sort out the withholding tax for my wife and I for some months now as we formed a partnership.

[reetikamehanti]

Awesome video! Its amazing how you put it. Made it so simple for all of us who were stuck.

[tarotlori]

This video is SO helpful! I've searched for instructions for this form last year and last week...and both times your video was the only one that made sense (I've now saved it to my search bar to make it easier in the future😅). Thank you!

[jessicabeagan]

Hi Sunny, thank you so much for this video! This form has been stressing me out BIG time.

I have a couple questions:
- do I need an ITIN? Or just the FTIN? - What’s the difference?

I had no idea the FTIN was just my SIN number, so that’s really helpful!

[stoometzphoto]

Thankyou for this video, i had my first US client and was so nervous but this walked me through what i had to do easy. Thankyou.

[MR.IGETUPTOEARLY]

Amazing video. So quick and specific, you really saved me a lot of time here!

[sofia.thibes]

Thank you so much for your video! I had never filled out a form like that before and I was so confused. You saved me an extra hour or two of research, really appreciate it!