Filling W-8BEN Form for Non US Citizens
If you’re a Non US citizen applying to join Commission Junction or many other US based companies’ affiliate programs, you will be required to fill up the W-8BEN form and mail or fax the form over.
So first things first, you can download the W-8BEN form at the IRS website.
For Non US citizens, You don’t have to complete all field. There are just a few fields you need to fill, namely for :
1) Your name in full
2) Your country
3) Type of owner – if you’re an individual than tick “individual”
4) Your address
9) Tick the box [a] for “The beneficial owner is a resident of….” and input your country’s name in the empty field. Ignore the rest (b-e), as in all likelihood you and your country has no tax treaty with the United States.
11) Tick the box for -“I have provided or will provide a statement that identifies those notational principal contracts…”
Sign at the bottom and input the date (month-day-year format).
Here is a bigger picture of the form and the areas to fill; if you need to view how it is done.
To be fair, this form is really only meant for individuals with earnings that are “sourced from the US” but since many US companies still ask for it, if you were asked to provide this form, consider it red tape that needs to be done.
