Upcoming tax impact for creators outside of the U.S.

Question

See this post in other languages: 
español
русский
português
Deutsch
français
Indonesia
日本語
-------
Hi creators,
Google is required to begin deducting U.S. taxes as early as June 2021 from creators outside of the U.S. which may affect your earnings. We’re asking you to submit relevant tax info in AdSense by May 31, 2021 so Google can determine the correct amount of taxes to deduct, if any apply. If your tax info isn’t provided by May 31, 2021, Google may be required to deduct up to 24% of your total worldwide YouTube earnings. 
We’ve prepared a short video to help walk you through the process. 
What’s happening?
Creators outside of the U.S. may begin to have taxes deducted from their U.S. earnings. These are earnings from viewers in the U.S. through ad views, YouTube Premium, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Channel Memberships.
Why is this happening?
Google has a responsibility under Chapter 3 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code to collect tax info from all monetizing creators outside of the U.S. and withhold taxes in certain instances when they earn income from viewers in the U.S.
For creators outside of the U.S., we will soon be updating our Terms of Service where your earnings from YouTube will be considered royalties from a U.S. tax perspective (we’ve already made this change to the Terms of Service for U.S. creators in November). This may impact the way your earnings are taxed, and as required by U.S. law, Google will withhold taxes. 
How do these U.S. taxes potentially impact me? 
All creators have unique tax situations and there are several factors that determine if your revenue will be impacted:
Monthly revenue your channel generated from users in the U.S.
If you want to see the revenue generated on your channel from U.S. viewers in YouTube Analytics, you can review the Revenue Report and apply a geography filter. 
Your tax withholding rate 
If you provide tax information, your withholding rate will be between 0% and 30% of monthly U.S. earnings.
The withholding rate depends on whether your country has a tax treaty with the United States. In order to claim treaty benefits, you'll have to provide a taxpayer identification number (TIN). Learn more here.
If no tax information is provided, your tax rate may default to the higher individual backup withholding rate which is 24% of total earnings worldwide.
A sample calculation to help you understand this concept
Example: A Creator in India earns $1,000 in revenue from YouTube in the last month. Of the $1000 in total revenue, their channel generated $100 from U.S. viewers. 
Here are some possible withholding scenarios: 
Creator doesn’t submit tax info: Final deduction is $240 because the withholding tax rate if you don’t submit a form is up to 24% of total earnings. This means that until we have your completed tax info, we’ll need to deduct up to 24% of your total earnings worldwide - not just your U.S. earnings. 
Creator submits tax info and claims a treaty benefit: Final tax deduction is $15. This is because India and the U.S. have a tax treaty relationship that reduces the tax rate to 15% of earnings from viewers in the U.S. 
Creator submits tax info, but is not eligible for a tax treaty: Final tax deduction is $30. This is because the tax rate without a tax treaty is 30% of earnings from viewers in the U.S. 
What do I need to do to provide accurate tax information?
The tax tool in AdSense will ask you a series of questions that will help guide you in the process. This FAQ article contains information on questions that may come up as you go through the process. 
Once you’re ready, you can submit your info by logging into AdSense to provide the tax form (steps here). There are help markers along the way labeled with “(i)” that will help provide context and explain some of the fields and what they mean so you can fill out these fields accurately. 
Please note that while the questions in the tax form are available in your AdSense supported language, the fields in the tax form only support upper- or lower-case letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), hyphens (-) and ampersands (&). If using an accented character, use the letter equivalent such as n for ñ or a for å. This is due to tax reporting requirements by the Internal Revenue Service (the U.S. tax authority, also known as the IRS). 
When’s the deadline and what happens if I don’t do this in time?
We are asking that all creators in YPP complete this tax information by May 31, 2021. If tax forms aren’t provided, your tax rate will default to 24% of your total earnings for individual account types (this the account type for a majority of creators) even if you only have a small percentage of revenue from U.S. viewers.
What if I’m a U.S. creator?
If you’re a creator in the U.S., we’ve already made this change to the Terms of Service in November. Most of you have already completed U.S. tax info in AdSense and won’t see any new taxes. Although some U.S. creators with incomplete tax info will need to re-submit their form. If you’re a U.S. creator, be sure to check that your info is complete in AdSense by following the steps here. 
Links & Additional Resources:
While we can’t advise on individual tax situations, some of the following links may be useful. If you need more specific tax advice, we recommend that you reach out to a professional tax advisor. 
U.S. tax requirements for YouTube earnings
Tax requirements for MCNs and Affiliate Channels 
Submitting U.S. tax info to Google (FAQs)
Learn more from videos made by other creators here.
You’ll be receiving emails in the following weeks reminding you of this requirement as we get closer to the deadline. Let us know if you have any questions about this process and we’ll try to answer as many as we can below. Please don’t share any personally identifiable information. 
We hope this helps clear up some of the next steps for you. 
Jensen (TeamYouTube)

Jensen - TeamYouTube · Accepted Answer

Quick reminder that if you’re a monetizing creator outside of the U.S., you’ll start seeing any applicable U.S. taxes deducted from your earnings starting with your next AdSense payment, somewhere between the 21st and the 26th of the month. 
Have you submitted your tax form?
To make sure your tax information has been received, check that your tax form status is a green “Approved” in AdSense. This means your tax form is submitted and no further action is needed. Steps to check this here. 
If you haven't submitted your tax form, it only takes about 15 minutes to complete. This will determine the applicable tax rate on your U.S. earnings and replace the default tax rate of 24% of your total earnings. Get started here.
In some instances where we need to verify a tax form, we will follow-up via email with additional information. 
​​
Want to check your tax withholding rate?
This is the applicable U.S. tax rate Google is required to deduct. This can be found in AdSense under the “United States tax info” section of your Payments profile.
If you have a valid claim for a reduced rate under a tax treaty, that rate will automatically appear. If you would like to claim a tax treaty, you can submit a new tax form and any adjustments will apply to future payments. More information here.

Other things to know
After getting paid later this month, you’ll be able to see the finalized amount of taxes withheld in your AdSense Payment report. 
If you need to make a change, or you think your tax withholding rate/amount withheld is incorrect, submit a new tax form in AdSense. Google will be able to recalculate the withholding amounts and in some cases, refund the difference. If applicable, you’ll see these refunds in the following payment cycle after you update your form. 
Jensen (TeamYouTube)

Jensen - TeamYouTube · Accepted Answer

Timeline for end-of-year tax documents & reminder to sign up for paperless delivery (help save trees!🌲)
 
As we’re approaching the end of the year, we know many of you are starting to think about filing taxes. We wanted to share some reminders about when you can expect to receive your tax documents and the December 31, 2021 deadline to sign up for paperless delivery to help save some trees this season.
 
When will my tax info be available?
You'll receive an email notifying you when your U.S. tax documents are available online, starting January 2022. These documents may be helpful for requesting a tax refund, credits, or other local tax benefits, where eligible.
 
Note: If you have not yet submitted your U.S. tax info or need to make an update, please do so by December 31, 2021. This allows Google to calculate your correct tax withholding rate, and if eligible, refund any differences. Learn more
 
How do I sign up for paperless tax documents?
Sign up to receive paperless delivery directly in AdSense before December 31, 2021 to ensure that this year’s tax documents will be entirely paperless. Accessing your tax documents online only takes a few minutes and will help save trees! 
 
Sign-up for paperless U.S. withholding tax documents with the steps below:
Sign in to your AdSense account
Click Payments
Click Manage settings
Scroll to Payments profile and click edit  next to United States tax info
Click Manage tax information
Click Manage Delivery Preferences 
Select Go paperless and click Update delivery preferences to save
 
Full info in our Help Center here.