Your situation will determine which tax form you need to fill out.
- US persons are required to fill out a W9 form
- Non-US individuals will need to fill out a W-8BEN form, and Non-US individuals organistions will need a W-8BEN-E form (you are here!)
Important: While we cannot provide you with tax advice, we have put together this article to help you through the process. This has the caveat that you should always seek advice from a professional accountant/tax advisor because we are not authorised to advise about your specific tax situation, including filling out your specific tax form.
Please note that tax forms submitted between 1 July 2026 and September 2026, will not take effect until September 2026. This is due to upcoming changes in our tax application. Please see this article: Upcoming Tax Changes - July 2026 for more information.
What’s Required:
All Authors on Envato must provide a valid tax form to ensure Royalty Withholding Taxes (RWT) are applied correctly to your earnings.
An Author account has one owner, and it is their details which should be in the tax information. That owner can be a corporation or other type of entity. Note that if you are a partnership, partners must nominate one partner to submit their tax information and withdrawals will only be made to the nominated partner.
Non-US Based authors:
- Non-US Authors are required to complete a standard IRS form called Form W-8BEN (for individuals) or Form W-8BEN-E (for companies) which includes some basic information about you, including your Foreign Tax Identification Number (TIN) and country of residence.
- The purpose of the Form W-8BEN and Form W-8BEN-E is to establish your identity and status as a non-U.S. person.
- If you do not submit your tax information, we can not remit your payments. In addition, your Market and Elements earnings from US buyers may be taxed at the highest rate of 30%, and will not benefit from a reduced withholding tax rate under a double tax agreement (if applicable).
Royalty Withholding Tax (RWT) for non-US Authors
Generally, transactions in digital creative content give rise to royalty earnings. If you are a non-US Author, your sales to US buyers may be subject to royalty withholding tax, depending on your country’s income tax treaty with the US.
US tax law provides that the US government may collect taxes for US source royalty income. A royalty is considered to be US sourced when the sale is made to a person residing within the US.
Accordingly, if you are a non-U.S. person, your sales to US buyers may be subject to royalty withholding tax of up to 30%.
However, if you are a resident of a country that has an income tax treaty with the U.S., you may be eligible for a reduced withholding tax rate. The full text of these treaties can be found on the IRS website.
A list of the applicable treaty royalty withholding tax rates can be found here. The applicable rates applied are based on the copyright classification.
Any tax withheld by Envato will be remitted to the IRS. We will also be preparing and filing form 1042s for the year ended 31 December with the IRS that will show the amount of your gross earnings from US buyers and taxes we paid from these earnings. You will be provided a copy of your Form 1042 from 15th March in the year following the year you made your earnings. These forms can be provided to your tax accountant to assist with claiming any tax credits that may be available in your home country.
How to Submit Your Tax Form
The form is available under Tax Information on your Author Home page, or directly via the link:
https://author.envato.com/tax_information and selecting Complete a Tax Form.
Select whether you are a US person or not a US person:
.A U.S person is:
- An individual who is a US citizen or US resident alien.
- A partnership, limited liability company, corporation, company, or association created or organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States.
- An estate (other than a foreign estate), or
- A domestic trust (as defined in US tax regulations).
If you are a U.S Person, you will continue to the W9 Form. You can find more information on that here: W-9 Requirements for US Authors.
Select if you are an individual or a corporation;
Step 1 - Certification of No U.S. Activities (1 of 4)
You will be asked to certify that you are not classified as a US person or liable for US Taxes; that you are not a US citizen, resident or subject to US taxation. If you cannot certify this, you will continue to the W9 Form, and can read more on that here: W-9 Requirements for US Authors.
Step 2 - Part 1; Your Details
The next section of the form asks you for your details.
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Individual: Provide details including your name, country, and postal address. Please ensure that you provide a complete address.
- If you have already filled out your general payout information, you can choose to copy over most of this information from your profile.
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Corporation: Provide the Name of your Organisation, country and type of entity e.g corporation, simple trust, estate, partnership.
- Note that Envato enters into a legal agreement with the person who creates an account and agrees to the terms and conditions. An Author account has one owner, and it is their details which should be in the tax form. That owner can be a corporation or other type of entity.
- Note that if you are a Partnership, Partners must nominate one partner to submit the form Withdrawals will only be made to the nominated account.
Individual - W-BEN Form
Corporation:
A disregarded entity is a business that has a single owner and is not a corporation under the US Regulations section 301.7701-2(b).
Chapter 3 status refers to, chapter 3 of the US Internal Revenue Code (Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Corporations). Please refer to the IRS instructions for further details https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iw8bene.pdf . For your Chapter 3 status, please select the type that represents your classification (for example, corporation, trust, estate, etc). By selecting a particular type, you are representing that you qualify for the classification indicated.
NOTE: For a Partnership, you will see an additional question: Is the entity a hybrid making a treaty claim? A “Yes” answer indicates that you are an intermediary or flow-through entity; i.e. a foreign business receiving money from the U.S., but you are not the true beneficial owner of that money. A prompt to complete a W-8IMY form will follow. However Envato is not able to enter into agreements with these entities nor can we accept W-8IMY forms. You would need to supply us with a W8/W9 Form which would be from the beneficial owner of the income.
Part 2 - Tax Identification Number
Next, the form asks for your tax identification type and number. You may provide your Foreign Tax ID Number, which is the number that you use when you submit your tax return or pay taxes in your country.
If you’re unable to provide your tax identification number you won’t be able to claim a tax treaty benefit and your earnings from US customers will be subject to 30% withholding rate.
To find your Foreign Tax ID Number, please see the guidance provided by the various jurisdictions and the OECD here. Alternatively, you may also find the guidance provided by the European Commission.
Once you confirm your information, if you’re from a country that has a treaty with the US you’ll be shown the treaty article number and tax rate relevant to your country. You can find this information in this extract table from the IRS. You can also view the full table on the IRS website (Table 1).
If your country is not on this table, that means your country does not have a treaty with the US. If you’re from a country that doesn’t have a treaty with the US, you will go straight to the next confirmation step.
Step 3: Confirmation
Page 3 of 4 is a chance to review your details. Ensure all of your details are correct before moving on.
Step 4 - Certification
In the final section of the form, you’re required to certify the information you’ve provided is correct.
Please make sure you understand all the items under this section. The purpose of the Form W-8 is to establish your identity and status as a non-U.S. person, that you are the beneficial owner of the revenue and whether a lower rate of withholding applies as the result of a treaty claim. Even if your country does not have a treaty with the US, the form is used to establish that you are not a U.S. person. It is important to note that providing false information is subject to penalties under perjury.
You will also need to acknowledge the certification and provide your name as an electronic signature.
FAQs
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What will we do with this information?
When you complete your tax information, W-8BEN or W-8BENE, you are certifying that you are not a US person. The Form W-8BEN or Form W-8BEN-E form will determine the appropriate withholding tax rate that will be applied to your sales to US customers, if any. At the end of each calendar year we'll send to you and the IRS a summary of your earnings from US customers, Form 1042, so that you can accurately report your income to your local tax authorities and claim any credits for the taxes withheld and remitted to the IRS.
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I don’t have a foreign tax identity number, what should I do?
If your country of residence has a tax treaty with the US, you need to include your Foreign Tax ID Number on your tax information. Your Foreign Tax ID Number is usually the number that you quote when you lodge your tax return or pay tax in your own country. To find your Foreign Tax ID Number, please see the guidance provided by the various jurisdictions and the OECD here. Alternatively, you may also find the guidance provided by the European Commission.
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I need a letter from Envato to support my W-7 application for a Tax Identity Number, who should I contact?
As part of the IRS ITIN application process, an Author may be required to provide a signed letter or document from Envato, on official letterhead, showing their name and verifying that an ITIN is required to make distributions to them during the current tax year that are subject to IRS information reporting and/or federal tax withholding. If you require this document, please contact us. You will need to provide us with your full name that matches the W-7 application. The IRS will not accept Usernames.
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What happens if I don’t provide a US TIN or a foreign tax identity number?
If you are a non-US Person from a country with a tax treaty with the US, we can’t apply the benefit of the treaty rate reduction and will be required to apply royalty withholding tax at the full rate of 30%. If you’re in a country that has no tax treaty with the US, unfortunately, we won’t be able to reduce the royalty withholding tax rate of 30%.
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Does this apply to US Authors?
No, this article relates to a US tax form from the IRS (the US tax authority) for non-US Persons. However all authors must complete a tax form - A separate form (W-9) is applicable for US Authors.
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What is this process for?
This process is needed to meet the IRS’ requirement that the appropriate taxes are applied to sales of digital products considered to be royalties.
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What happens if I don’t complete my tax info until after I am taxed at the highest rate of 30%?
As any amounts withheld prior to receiving your tax information will be sent to the IRS, we are unable to give you a refund However, we will send you an earnings summary (Form 1042-S) which will show the earnings that you had and the taxes that you paid before your submitted your tax information. You may provide this statement to your tax adviser / accountant to see if you are eligible to claim tax credits in your country.
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What happens if I pay Royalty Withholding Tax, but I also pay my tax in my home country?
You should consult your accountant or tax advisor on how to ensure you’ve paid your correct taxes on your end of year tax return or if you are eligible to claim tax credits for the royalty withholding tax that was paid to the IRS.
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How secure is my tax information stored with Envato?
We take your privacy and information security seriously and will use industry standard practices to securely store any details you provide in this form.
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What documentation will I get about amounts withheld?
You will be able to see tax withheld on each payment in your Recent Payments section on your Author Dashboard and we will also send you a Form 1042 from 15 March following the year you had your earnings.
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Should I be seeking tax or legal advice?
Any time you earn money as an independent contractor, freelancer, or through an online service, you should make sure you have informed your accountant or tax advisor so they can help make sure that you are correctly paying your taxes.
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What if there are multiple owners of the account?
Envato Market enters into a legal agreement with the person who creates an account and agrees to the terms and conditions. If you are a US Person (a definition which includes Partnerships, LLCs amongst other things, as well as individuals) then you should complete the Form W-9 details. An Author account has one owner, and it is their details which should be in the tax form W-8. That owner can be a corporation or other type of entity. Note that if you are a Partnership, Partners must nominate one partner to submit the tax form. Withdrawals will only be made to the nominated account.
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If I already pay taxes in my country for my earnings on Envato do I still need to provide the tax information Envato is asking for?
If you do not provide your tax information, Envato cannot pay you and may also be required to withhold 30% from your gross earnings from US buyers.
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Will I be taxed twice if my country does not have a tax treaty with the US?
The answer will depend entirely on your country of residence.
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If my country has a tax treaty with the US how much tax will be withheld from my earnings?
Generally, an income tax treaty will provide for a reduced or zero rate of withholding on royalty income.
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If I am a citizen of another country but live and maintain a residence or address in the US does that affect the tax information I must supply to Envato?
You will need to speak with your tax advisor, as circumstances and opinions may differ. We recommend that you speak with your tax advisor, as this may be a very fact specific question.
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I am an international Author so why is the U.S. taxing me?
US tax law provides that the US government may collect taxes for US source royalty income. A royalty is considered to be US sourced when the sale is made to a person residing within the US.
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How will my earnings as an Author be calculated after withholding tax is applied?
Envato will apply royalty withholding taxes at the time of payment instead of at the time of earning.
Envato Market: this applies to earnings from August 1st 2026. September will be the first payment that this applies to (August earnings, paid in September).
Envato Elements: this applies to earnings from July 1st 2026. September will be the first Elements payment that this applies to (July earnings, paid in September).
For Envato Market sales, RWT only applies to sales to U.S based buyers; known as US sourced income.
Example for Envato Market; Let's use an example where you make a sale of a WordPress theme for $49 to a U.S. buyer: The first thing is that in a $49 WordPress theme sale, $12 of that is our Envato Fixed Buyer Fee directly to the buyer. So your Item Price is $37.
Step 1: $49 - $12 = $37 is the Author's Item Price
Step 2: The Author fee is detracted, which is usually 50%.
50% of $37 = $18.50
Step 3 - RWT Applied
Lastly, when all your earnings are collated in your balance, we will attempt to pay them out to you when they reach over our minimum payout threshold of $50. We apply US Royalty Withholding Tax (RWT) and send this to the IRS at the time we pay you. This changes based on the treaty rate between your country and the USA. Again, using the above example, let's say the Author's country does have a treaty with the US and the RWT rate is 10%. 10% would be withdrawn from the Item Price (10% of $37 is $3.70) which will be remitted to the IRS. The final amount you would get paid is: $37 - $18.50 - $3.70 = $14.80
Example for Envato Elements:
Your Envato Elements earnings are collated and added to your Balance, and we will attempt to pay them out to you when you reach over the minimum payout threshold of $50.
Tax is applied at the time of payment; so let’s say you have a $100 payment. We will determine how much of your $100 earnings related to US-Sourced income. I.e. what portion of your earnings related to a US subscriber. If $30 of your earnings was used by US subscribers, this would be the amount we calculate RWT. If your country has a tax treaty with the US resulting in a RWT rate of 10%, we will apply 10% RWT to the $30. Therefore, $3 would be withdrawn from this payment and remitted to the IRS resulting in your payout to be $97.