Your situation will determine which tax form you need to fill out.
- US persons are required to fill out a W9 form (you are here!)
- Non-US individuals will need to fill out a W-8BENform,
- Non-US organizations will need to fill out a W-8BEN-E.form.
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, whose details 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.
For US Based Authors;
- US Authors (individual or corporations) are required to complete a standard IRS form called the Form W-9 which includes some basic information about you, including a Tax Identification Number (TIN). The TIN can either be your Social Security Number (SSN) or the Employer Identification Number (EIN) of your business.
- If you do not provide your tax information, we cannot remit your payments. In addition, we may be required to apply backup withholding tax of 24% on all your earnings.
- Any tax withheld by Envato will be remitted to the IRS, and not held by Envato. We will also be preparing and filing Forms 1099 with the IRS that will show the amount of your gross earnings and taxes we paid from your earnings.
- You will be provided a copy of your Form 1099 no later than January 31 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.
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 not a U.S Person, select “I am not a U.S Person” and you will continue to the W8 Form. You can find more information on that here: W-8 Requirements for non US Authors.
Part 1 - Your Details
The next section of the form asks you for your personal details.
- 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.
TaxPayer Identification Number
You will also need to select in the drop down the Federal Tax Classification that applies to you, and enter in the relevant Tax Identification Number.
The tax classification on the Form W-9 refers to the type of legal entity you choose to run your business. The most common forms of businesses are:
- Sole proprietorships
- Partnerships
- Corporations
- Limited Liability Companies (LLC)
A Taxpayer Identification Number is an identification number issued by the United States’ Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or the Social Security Administration (SSA). A Social Security Number (SSN) is issued by the SSA whereas all other TINs are issued by the IRS.
Depending on your selection, you will be directed to enter your identification number; either SSN or EIN.
| Tax Classification | Description | Tax ID Type |
| Sole proprietorship | Sole proprietorship is an unincorporated business owned entirely by the individual. In general, the owner is also personally liable for all financial obligations and debts of the business. |
A sole proprietor can use either SSN or EIN on the W-9 as its TIN.
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| Partnership | A partnership is the relationship existing between 2 or more persons who join to carry on a trade or business. Each partner is taxed on his share of the partnership net profit or loss. | Partnerships must use its EIN on the Form W-9 as its TIN. |
| Corporation |
Corporations are formed under the laws of each state and are taxed corporate income tax separately to the owners. Any earnings distributed to shareholders in the form of dividends are taxed at individual tax rates on the owners’ personal tax returns. Regular corporations are called C Corporations because Subchapter C of Chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code is where you find the general tax rules affecting corporations and their shareholders. The Subchapter S Corporation is a variation of the standard corporation. An S Corporation is similar to a partnership in that generally taxes are not paid at corporate level. It has the same corporate structure as a standard corporation, except it files an election Form 2553, Election by a Small Business Corporation, to be treated differently for federal tax purposes. |
Corporations must use its EIN on the Form W-9 as its TIN. |
| Limited Liability Company |
An LLC is an entity created by state statute. Depending on elections made by the LLC and the number of members, the IRS will treat an LLC either as a corporation, a partnership or a disregarded entity.
An LLC that has at least 2 members is classified as a partnership unless it files Form 8832 and affirmatively elects to be treated as a corporation.An LLC that is classified as a partnership must use the LLC’s EIN on the Form W-9 as its TIN.
An LLC that has only 1 member is classified as a disregarded entity unless it files Form 8832 and affirmatively elects to be treated as a corporation. An individual owner of a single-member LLC that operates a trade or business is subject to tax in the same manner as a sole proprietorship |
A single-member LLC classified as a disregarded entity generally must use the owner’s SSN or EIN on the Form W-9 as its TIN, not the LLC’s EIN. LLCs that files Form 8832 to affirmatively elect to be treated as corporations should use the LLC’s EIN on the Form W-9 as its TIN. |
Exemptions (optional)
If relevant to you, enter in your Exempt Payee code. Exemption codes apply to only certain entities, not individuals. If not relevant to you, click continue to go to the next step.
Part II - Certification
In the next part of the form, you need to certify that the information you’ve provided is correct.
Please make sure you understand all the items under this section. 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.
If you have already submitted a tax form and this is a new one, you will see a prompt to confirm that you want to Submit and void your previous form.
If you have any questions about this process, don’t hesitate to contact us by submitting a Help ticket. Alternatively, if you need further details, please see the following IRS Help articles:
FAQs
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Why do I have to submit Tax a tax form?
This process is to help US Authors to report their earnings properly and to make sure that the appropriate taxes are applied.
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What happens if I don’t complete my tax info until after withholding starts?
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 1099) 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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How secure is my tax information??
We use Trolley, a trusted payments platform, to collect and store your tax information. Trolley is SOC 2 Type II certified and protects your data with bank-level 256-bit encryption and tokenization of sensitive details like government IDs and social security numbers. You can read more in Trolley's security policy (https://trolley.com/security-policies/)
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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 in Author Home, and we will also send you a Form 1099 on 31 January following the year you had your earnings.
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Should I be seeking tax or legal advice?
Anytime 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. An Author account has one owner, and it is their details which should be in the tax formThat owner can be a corporation or other type of entity. Note that if you are a Partnership, Partners must nominate one partner to submit a W-8 or W-9. Withdrawals will only be made to the nominated account.
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What additional documentation will you be collecting?
We regularly receive information from different sources and in cases where this information contradicts information you provided us we may need to get in touch with you and get clarification.
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I’m a US Person, but I reside elsewhere or am travelling
You should consult your tax advisor. All authors must complete a Tax form, and it is up to you to ensure the information is correct and up to date.
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Are prizes from Envato taxed?
Any income received as "prizes and awards" will relate to non-royalty income.