While it’s always smart to consult a tax advisor for questions about tax forms, we do want to offer as much help as we can. Below you’ll see the top questions we are seeing and solutions for each.
Yes, you can. Please fill in as much information as you can, though. Once you submit your form to us, we’ll review and respond through email in approximately three business days. If there is anything else we need, we’ll let you know.
When you complete the form, please be sure to fill out the following three sections under Tax Information:
- Tax Residence
- W-8BEN
- Tax Identification Number card (including signing the certification and affidavit of unchanged status)
You can confirm this by going to Settings > Tax Information. If all three sections—Tax Residence, W-BEN/W-BENE, and Tax Identification Number are filled out, you’ve successfully completed the form.
For the W-8BEN and Tax Identification sections, you’ll see “Completed” in the capsule beside the section’s title once you’ve completed and submitted your information. If you haven’t done so yet, the capsule will say “Not completed”.
Note:
For freelancers in Mexico and India, if you completed the W-8BEN with your TIN in the past but did not sign the certification and affidavit of unchanged status, you will need to complete the form again.
If you click on the pencil icon for any section, information may appear missing, but rest assured this is as designed. If you filled in all 3 sections and saved them, you have completed the request.
Your TIN may be verified, but not necessarily when you enter it. We encourage you to enter in all accurate information in the form, otherwise we’ll be required to withhold up to 30% of your future earnings on Upwork and send them to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. We only use the form to confirm that you are not a U.S. Person and that we are not required to withhold taxes from your earnings for the IRS. This includes providing this information to the IRS if they request it.
Please use your current TIN from where you live now.
We understand there has been an issue with updating the date of birth. Our engineers are taking actions to resolve this. Please try entering your date of birth, again. If you previously adjusted the date you were selecting in an attempt to get it to save correctly, please double-check your entry. It may need to be readjusted. If you still are having difficulty with this, please let us know. Any screenshots you’re able to provide for our engineers would be very helpful.
Read our full Help article about Form W-8BEN here.