W-8BEN-E - United States IRS Forms - Nightmare.

[Bronco78th]

Hi All.

I'm a sole trader who files my own taxes.

I recently did a job for what I thought was a UK based company. However though they have a UK HQ, ALL their account and financials go through their US based head office. Which I wasn't aware of before taking the job on.

After sending an invoice to pay with no VAT (I'm not VAT registered) for around £600. The US office have asked me to fill out and provide a W-8BEN-E form that they can submit to the US IRS which establishes how much tax needs to be paid on the transaction (as I understand it).

Having glanced and being rather intimidated by the (8 Page) form, I'm pretty sure as a UK based Sole trader its not the right form anyway. Possibly I should fill in W-8BEN not W-8BEN-E which is for limited companies.

Anyone have an experience of this? any help advice much appreciated.

Kind Regards,
John

 

[WaveJumper]

I have to fill them in to trade US stocks take a deep breath (arm yourself with a cuppa) and you will find its fairly straight forward to fill out you will likely find most of the questions don't relate to you at all.