Technically, as requested by the IRS, no matter how tedious and unnecessary, libraries are supposed to obtain new tax forms, W-9s or W-8BENs every year. This is to make sure information is correct or updated.
Are they giving you a heads up and asking you to turn it in by January, or are they demanding it now?
Here's the email:
Congratulations! You've had a large number of your files downloaded from the Shutterstock site.
For compliance reasons, we're required to have a completed W-9 form from you on file so we can process a 1099 tax form at the end of the year and provide you with a copy for your own tax reporting. The 1099 form will indicate your total income from Shutterstock for the year and is also filed with the IRS. For this reason, we cannot process any payments to you until we have your completed W-9 on file.
To download the W-9 form, please go to
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdfAfter filling out the form, please fax it to 347-626-2455. Make sure it is clearly labeled with your account ID (54905). Again, we will not be able to process any payments to you until we have received the completed W-9 form.
Thank you for your cooperation and thank you for allowing us to represent your content.
Regards,
Shutterstock Support
Here we go again...wouldn't it have been so much easier on everyone if THEY had explained that they needed updated W-9 info every year and that if nothing changed, we DIDN'T have to resend it?
The email above, to me, means that if I had not taken action in the next few days, I would NOT be getting my August royalty check. And they make it sound as though they have NOTHING on file from me, but they do.
If W-9s need to be filled out for each year, shouldn't we have gotten a notice, say the last week of December last year, for this year's payments? Maybe their tax year begins in August?
