Contractor based in UK working for US company in need of advice

**m0n1k3r** · 7 January 2017, 21:24

Originally posted by Fred Bloggs View Post

That's right. I believe the only two countries in the world to do that are the US and Eritrea. Have I missed something? The OP hasn't said he is a US citizen has he?

North Korea is the third one.

The USA imposes silly withholding taxes on payments to foreign suppliers, but is the responsibility of the US-based customer, not of the OP. The OP might have to send them a W1-BEN form to evidence that the OP is not a US citizen, if asked, in order to minimise withholding taxes.

**jamesbrown** · 7 January 2017, 21:49

Originally posted by m0n1k3r View Post

North Korea is the third one.

The USA imposes silly withholding taxes on payments to foreign suppliers, but is the responsibility of the US-based customer, not of the OP. The OP might have to send them a W1-BEN form to evidence that the OP is not a US citizen, if asked, in order to minimise withholding taxes.

Depends. There's no withholding for non-US source income of a non-US person/entity, which would cover most UK-based contractors (source = where the work is done for services). And it's a W8-BEN-E (for entity). However, there's also no reporting requirement on the above scenario.