Introduction
The W-8BEN is the most common form for non-U.S. instructors who are individuals. You should fill out the W-8BEN if you are “a foreign person” and the beneficial owner of “an amount subject to withholding” (such as Udemy earnings derived from U.S. students).
Because we know many non-U.S. instructors will be filling out a W-8BEN and may not have encountered U.S. tax forms before, we’ve provided some general information about the tax form platform for the W-8BEN below. These instructions are adapted from the official IRS instructions for the W-8BEN, available in English on the IRS website.
For questions about your specific tax details, you’ll need to consult a tax advisor. Udemy is not legally permitted to advise you on how your specific circumstances should be represented on your tax forms.
Table of Contents
United States citizenship status
Taxpayer Identification Number
Basic details
Summary: On this page, you’ll be asked for some basic information about yourself, such as your name, residential address, and taxpayer identification number. This page is the same for all tax forms, but the information you enter may determine what questions you’re prompted to answer later in the process.
Common instructor questions:
- I am a citizen of one country, but a resident of another. What am I supposed to enter under “country of citizenship”?
The IRS writes that if you are “not a resident in any country in which you have citizenship”, you should enter “the country where you were most recently a resident.”
For example, if you’re a citizen of Atlantis but currently living in Malaysia, and you’re not a resident of Atlantis anymore, you would enter Malaysia as your “country of citizenship” on line 2.
- To my knowledge, I don’t have a taxpayer identification number in my country. What should I enter?
For non-U.S. instructors, your TIN will be the taxpayer identification number issued by your local government. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) provides a helpful page in English here that details the names and formats that various countries use as TINs.
- I’m having trouble entering my Taxpayer Identification Number. What’s going on?
The Udemy tax form platform uses the country you enter to pre-format your TIN. However, it’s possible that your TIN format may not perfectly match your country’s standard TIN format. If that’s the case, simply check the box for “TIN format non-standard” and enter your TIN.
United States citizenship status
Summary text: On this page, you’ll provide additional details about your relationship with the United States. This will help us determine if you should actually be considered a U.S. person for tax purposes, even though you live outside the U.S.
Common instructor questions:
- Why can’t I edit my country of citizenship?
The country of citizenship shown on this page pre-populates based on your selection from the “Basic details” page. If you want to edit your country of citizenship, you’ll need to use the “Back” button to return to the previous page.
As with the “country of citizenship” question on the “Basic details” page, your “country of citizenship” is your most recent residential country (your “tax citizenship”).
Taxpayer Identification Number
Summary: On this page, you’ll confirm that your taxpayer identity information is correct.
Common instructor questions:
- Why am I being asked to provide my TIN again?
Your TIN is crucial to confirming your taxpayer identity and correctly calculating any applicable withholding. If you do not enter a valid TIN, Udemy will need to withhold at the maximum rate regardless of any other information you provide. This page is here so you can confirm that you’ve correctly entered your TIN.
Treaty claim
Summary: On this page, you may claim the benefits of any tax treaty between your country and the United States and reduce your rate of withholding.
Common instructor questions:
- Do I have to make a treaty claim to receive a reduced rate of withholding?
Yes. If you live in a country with a tax treaty that would reduce your rate of withholding, you must claim the benefits of the treaty on this page for the reduction to apply.
If you’re unfamiliar with IRS withholding, here’s a little more detail:
By default, Udemy must withhold 30% of income from U.S. student sales when paying out non-U.S. instructors. If you make a valid tax form submission without a treaty claim, you’ll see that 30% rate applied to the portion of your income derived from your U.S. students. (No IRS withholding will apply for income from non-U.S. students.)
However, many countries have treaties with the United States that reduce this rate, sometimes even to 0%. The IRS provides an English list of these treaties here. Your Udemy earnings are considered “copyright royalties,” so please refer to that section of the PDF to see if your country has an applicable treaty.
- I’d like to make a treaty claim, but my country isn’t listed. Why?
Our tax platform will only let you select countries with applicable tax treaties. If you’ve indicated you’d like to make a treaty claim, but your country isn’t listed on the dropdown menu, your country does not have an applicable tax treaty, and you will need to decline to make a treaty claim.
Special rates & conditions
Summary: On this page, you can let us know if you have any less common circumstances that require you to give additional details about your tax treaty claim.
Common instructor questions:
- How is this different from the regular treaty claim?
For this section, you should only select "Yes" and proceed through the flow if you are claiming specific treaty benefits that require you to meet conditions you haven't already declared in your submission. For example, for copyright royalty income, you must complete this line if your country's treaty specifies different withholding rates for different kinds of royalties.
See the IRS's Tax Treaty Table (February 2019 version available in English here) for more about the treaty rates that different countries have negotiated with the U.S.
Legal certification
Summary: On this page, you’ll confirm that the information you’ve provided is complete and accurate, in preparation for your electronic signature in the final step of the process.
Common instructor questions:
- Some of the legal certifications aren’t relevant to me, but I can’t proceed without checking the boxes. What should I do?
Our platform treats each certification from Part III of the W-8BEN as an individual checkbox. On the original W-8BEN form, these are simply bullet points before the final signature, so they cover all possible scenarios in which an individual might be submitting the form. Checking the box confirms that you have reviewed the statement, and that if it applies to you, it’s correct.
For example, one of the certifications reads: “The person named on line 1 of this form is a resident of the treaty country listed on line 9 of the form (if any).” If you did not make a treaty claim, then the phrase “if any” indicates that this statement doesn’t apply to you.
As an additional example, another of the certifications reads: “For broker transactions or barter exchanges, the beneficial owner is an exempt foreign person as defined in the instructions.” Since you aren’t submitting this form to cover income from broker transactions or barter exchanges (your Udemy income is considered copyright royalties), this statement doesn’t apply to you.
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