See this: http://www.fotolia.com/Member/TaxCenter

YOU ARE A RESIDENT OF A COUNTRY THAT HAS A TAX TREATY WITH THE USA

If you are an individual and a resident of a country that has a tax treaty with the U.S., you would typically submit Form W-8 BEN. You may apply for an ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) by completing Form SS-4 ( SS-4 Instructions ) or form W-7 to benefit from a reduced or zero withholding rate, according to your country tax treaty. The SS-4 and W-7 forms must be sent to the IRS directly, not to Fotolia.

Please note - a W-8BEN form can be submitted without an ITIN number. An ITIN enables the contributor to claim treaty benefits to reduce or eliminate withholding on U.S. source income. An ITIN is not required for income outside of the U.S..

Please pay attention to the bold and underlined bit. What I understand is they make ITIN 'a must' if you want to claim treaty benefits. Am I wrong?

what? is that new? (I haven't received any email from them on this).
I thought tax withholding was only with American companies (isn't FT French?)

As I understand, it applies to sales done in the USA.  We must trust FT will do that correctly.   

It looks like we need to obtain ITIN to claim benefits. I remember when SS did this, people behaved like it was the end of the world.

I need to remind you that we don't need the stupid ITIN with veer and SS anymore. So what . is up with fotolia again? Inventing new problems every other month.

There is a thread about this in their forum in the legal section.  I have asked when they intend to start withholding tax, as it can take several months to get hold of an ITIN number.

I should have requested a payout days ago. 

I should have requested a payout days ago. 

I just requested a payout on seeing this thread... didn't see any mention of the tax issue. Lets see if the money comes though as normal.

On a side note - I think only a very small % of FT income comes from the US - most is from Germany, so the withholding tax shouldn't be much... still too much, but probably not as bad as it sounds.

An istock admin said they wouln't be witholding tax, so why should Fotolia? I thouight only US companies had to do this.

An istock admin said they wouln't be witholding tax, so why should Fotolia? I thouight only US companies had to do this.

They (Fotolia) are an US company - global headquarters are in NYC...

I just completed their on-line W-8BEN form (without having an ITIN) and it is pending right now. As both Veer and Shutterstock accepted the W-8BENs without ITINs, I don't see why Fotolia should be any different  

d�ja vu

submitting the forum was pretty straight forward - much like the shutterstock and Veer experience.  If you did the form for those sites you shouldn't have a problem.

submitting the forum was pretty straight forward - much like the shutterstock and Veer experience.  If you did the form for those sites you shouldn't have a problem.

The problem isn't submitting the form, they have asked for an ITIN number.  Perhaps you don't need to enter that on the form but do they still withhold US taxes?  Shutterstock and Veer didn't require the ITIN number.  Shutterstock also informed everyone by email and kept them up to date in the forum.  They also gave us a few months notice, how long are fotolia giving us?

I can't read the US forum, is there any more information there?

I agree with Sharpshot, the risk is you fill out the form to your best knowledge and they deduct taxes anyway, because they interpret things differently than SS or Veer did.

I asked some questions on the German forum, let's wait if there will be any meaningful response...

Quote from: leaf on November 26, 2009, 04:41

submitting the forum was pretty straight forward - much like the shutterstock and Veer experience.  If you did the form for those sites you shouldn't have a problem.

The problem isn't submitting the form, they have asked for an ITIN number.  Perhaps you don't need to enter that on the form but do they still withhold US taxes?  Shutterstock and Veer didn't require the ITIN number.  Shutterstock also informed everyone by email and kept them up to date in the forum.  They also gave us a few months notice, how long are fotolia giving us?

I can't read the US forum, is there any more information there?

Ok, good points.  

No there wasn't any information in the US Fotolia forum.  No announcement and no input from Fotolia staff, just a little from the forum moderators but they seems just as confused as anyone else.  One member contacted fotolia and received this

I have just received a reply from Fotolia. They say we have to obtain the ITIN number, which we get by applying to the IRS. Thing is, ** went through this same process earlier this year. First they said we needed to get the TIN number, then they consulted further and discovered that they actually did not need the number, there was no need to fill out the W7 form or apply for a TIN from the IRS, and all we needed to do was fill out the W-8BEN number leaving the TIN number blank. It works fine there, we do not have tax deducted there, so why can't Fotolia do the same thing?

http://www.fotolia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=23638