My decision to publish a novel independently has been an adventure.
The rigors of preparing your manuscript for ebook conversion has taught me a few tricks in Microsoft Word; specifically, creating formatting styles you have to apply to your text, providing a table of contents through hyperlinks and bookmark and doing the proper way of inserting images in your document. Smashwords has a manual to help you with this which you can use for Amazon’s KDP. Other alternatives are to hire someone to do the job for you or download a free template online.
I’ve recently registered in Amazon KDP and found their site clean and user-friendly. They give tips to help you answer the fields you need to enter in order to publish your book.
I also changed the cover, blurb and my pen name for The Realms of Ethair while I’m still trying to understand how to process the documents needed to comply with IRS withholding regulations and to claim tax treaty benefits, considering the heading in blue below.
Here are some helpful blogs on how to accomplish the forms:
- Non-US Self-Publisher? Tax Issues Don’t Need to be Taxing
- Tax on US royalties
- Self-Publisher Tax ID needed, but I’m not a US Citizen! Help!
Heads up for those who are reading this article, especially Non-US authors/publishers:
IRS has updated their W8-BEN form. It has been split into two. W8-BEN for Individual TIN and W8-BEN-E for EIN. Smashwords is using the updated version. To date, IRS has yet to provide instructions on how to answer the form since there is no EIN field available, there are only ITIN, GIIN and Foreign TIN.
Hmm. Does that mean I just need to give my Foreign TIN? Also, would I still need to apply for US TIN/EIN if I’ll be using CreateSpace in the future to have my book printed?
If anyone had encountered this, please share how it was resolved on the comments box below.
Thanks.
To know more about filing the EIN and W8-BEN forms, continue reading e-Publishing Adventures part 2.
Gone to Write 
The IRS always have documentation per form. If you open the new W-8BEN one of the top lines is on where to find the accompanying documentation, which you can read here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8ben.pdf
That document lists among recent changes to W8-BEN:
“In particular, this Form W-8BEN is now used exclusively by individuals. Entities documenting their foreign status, chapter 4 status, or making a claim of treaty benefits (if applicable) should use Form W-8BEN-E.”
Thus you now need to fill out W-8BEN-E if you are a foreign individual claiming treaty benefits (i.e. you are from a country who is part of the tax treaty which means that Amazon, Smashwords and the like do not have to withhold 30% of your earnings for the IRS).
I hope that helps 🙂
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Hi, Scarlet. Thanks for the clarification.
Do I still need to apply for a U.S. TIN if I have a Foreign TIN?
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By “Foreign TIN” do you mean as in the UK National Insurance Number or Canadian SIN, or do you mean that you have already received an ITIN from the IRS?
Essentially if you are in any way eligible for treaty benefits to prevent a sales channel from withholding 30% of your royalties as tax for the IRS, you must have an EIN, and you must complete W-8BEN-E now.
If you are not eligible for treaty benefits, you can still use an ITIN.
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I provided my TIN from the Philippines and haven’t applied for an ITIN.
I’ll get an EIN then.
Thanks for helping.
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You’re welcome 🙂
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Hi there,
Just a follow-up to yesterday’s comments:
I have had some sleep and re-read the new Instructions for W-8BEN, and I’m afraid I made an error yesterday. For a non-US author the procedure remains unchanged.
Collect your EIN, then complete the W-8BEN as normal. The W-8BEN-E is not the right form after all!
Sorry for any confusion! That’s what I get for attempting to read legalese while on painkillers >.<
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Hi.
That’s a relief. I checked the W8-BEN-E form and got overwhelmed by its length.
I noticed that W8-BEN’s line 5 requires an SSN or ITIN. Is it possible to enter EIN instead?
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It would seem not, According to the Instructions at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8ben.pdf if you do not have an SSN or ITIN, you leave Like 5 blank and put your local Tax Identification in Line 6 (in the Philippines this is your TIN).
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Thanks again. (^_^)
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Oh my goodness! Amazing articcle dude! Thank
you so much, However I am going through issues wigh your RSS.
I don’t know the reason why I can’t jin it.
Is there anybody else getting idenfical RSS problems?
Anybody who knows the answer can you kindly respond?
Thanx!!
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Hi Tammi,
Thanks. I included RSS links on the right side. It’s compatible with other browsers except for Chrome. To be honest, I’m just exploring RSS quite recently and could only hope this helps.
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Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you
know a few of the pictures aren’t loading properly.
I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue.
I’vetried iit in two different browsers and both show the same results.
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Hi Simon. Thanks for notifying me. I’ve re-attached the links for the images and checked if t would load correctly. Hopefully, it would display properly in your browser now.
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Hey very interesting blog!
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Thank you. 🙂
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Good article. I am facing many of these issues
as well..
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Thank you. I hope this post helps you.
Currently, I shifted from Amazon’s KDP to Smashwords. The latter gives you more options on how to price your book and provides customers varied ebook formats to choose from. 🙂
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This blog was… how do I say it? Relevant!! Finally I’ve found something that
helped me. Thank you!
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You’re welcome. Glad to be of help. 🙂
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