The "What Are You Working On?" Thread - Week Ending November 21st 2015

[ecchi]

Apparently, today I will be filling in tax forms for the American IRS.

<rant>I'm British. I live and work in England. So why the fuck do I have to fill out American tax returns just because the guy who handles my book sales is American? Let him spend half his life filling out American tax form. I'm British - BRITISH.

I say we stop using British 'planes to bomb the Middle East, and send our air force to Washington instead, to start bombing the fuck out of the IRS. </rant>

[JAI-LING]

Originally Posted by ecchi

Apparently, today I will be filling in tax forms for the American IRS.

<rant>I'm British. I live and work in England. So why the fuck do I have to fill out American tax returns just because the guy who handles my book sales is American? Let him spend half his life filling out American tax form. I'm British - BRITISH.

I say we stop using British 'planes to bomb the Middle East, and send our air force to Washington instead, to start bombing the fuck out of the IRS. </rant>

There's a form for foreigners paying taxes outside US (I-8WEN) or something like that. Don't know your deal structure but you can probably tell the IRS to look under another rock.

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by JAI-LING

There's a form for foreigners paying taxes outside US (I-8WEN) or something like that. Don't know your deal structure but you can probably tell the IRS to look under another rock.

Oh it is not just one form! Fill in form (1) wait for a reply. Then fill in form (2) and send with a copy of the reply, wait for another reply. Then fill in form (3) including the ref no you got in reply to form (2)!!!!

As to "tell the IRS to look under another rock", yeah, I could do that, that is an option. But if I do that SmashWords have to give 30% of my royalties to Uncle Sam, and as I also have to pay UK tax on the money, that leaves me with very little. Even more annoying is that if I let Uncle Sam have 30%, I still have to pay British tax on the money THE US GOVERNMENT HAS ALREADY TAKEN out of my share. So by the end of the day I'll be getting about 20% of my royalties. And since SmashWords commission. processing fees, and (if it was an affiliate sale) 35% for the affiliate will already have been taken, that means I get about 25c from a $4 sale.

So I be filling in whatever forms the IRS will be sending me!

[JAI-LING]

Originally Posted by ecchi

Oh it is not just one form! Fill in form (1) wait for a reply. Then fill in form (2) and send with a copy of the reply, wait for another reply. Then fill in form (3) including the ref no you got in reply to form (2)!!!!

As to "tell the IRS to look under another rock", yeah, I could do that, that is an option. But if I do that SmashWords have to give 30% of my royalties to Uncle Sam, and as I also have to pay UK tax on the money, that leaves me with very little. Even more annoying is that if I let Uncle Sam have 30%, I still have to pay British tax on the money THE US GOVERNMENT HAS ALREADY TAKEN out of my share. So by the end of the day I'll be getting about 20% of my royalties. And since SmashWords commission. processing fees, and (if it was an affiliate sale) 35% for the affiliate will already have been taken, that means I get about 25c from a $4 sale.

So I be filling in whatever forms the IRS will be sending me!

Speak to a tax person. You can't be double taxed. Most countries have treaties covering it.

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by JAI-LING

Speak to a tax person. You can't be double taxed. Most countries have treaties covering it.

The treaty is why I got to fill in all these forms. If I do, I get my money back (I hope), if I don't, then I'm agreeing to be double taxed!

(As to "You can't be double taxed" - you can be, lots of people are. If you live in a country that the US does not have an agreement with and your country expects you to pay income tax, then any money you earn in the US will be double taxed!)