Question about the legal requirements for payment

buglbug 2015-03-07 11:37:43 UTC #1

hi, i found this site recently and i was considering possibly using it for a comic I might try to draw (if i can get over my insecurities/renew my inspiration past the like, 5 puns i have written down)

of course, as a young adult who has yet to have ever had a job, i'm obviously interested in the whole possibly-getting-paid part of the deal (which for me is really the only thing this site has going over just making a tumblr or something tbh)

but i don't understand the faq, in the legal requirements section: "Return a signed W-9 Form"

i know that's tax related, but i've never filed taxes (see: yet to have had a job) and i'm not sure exactly what it means: do i have to send my (nonexistent) taxes to tapastic to like, prove they exist or something if i want to be eligible for payment? or is that just what tax form the site would want me to use?? or like. what. what does it mean?

UzukiCheverie 2015-03-07 16:30:09 UTC #2

The W-9 form is only required for US citizens. So to kinda help answer your first question, if you aren't a US citizen, you don't even have to worry about this :B

It doesn't mean you have to send your income tax forms to Tapastic, and if you're young, whether you have a job or not, you're not going to have to worry about filing income tax for a while lol

It's basically just a form for the sake of Tapastic, considering it's a US based company (which I can assume why it's for US citizens only). It's for payroll purposes (or in this case, supporter/ad revenue purposes) and just works Tapastic into the tax income system for you specifically so that they can keep track of that income and payments. That's all it is :U (at least from my understanding lol I'm no whiz either :p)

bob_artist 2015-03-07 21:36:27 UTC #3

This is a W9: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf

Tapastic might have a version they send out that can be filled in digitally, though. I haven't gotten to that point with Tapastic yet, but Patreon does. Most companies won't report your earnings to the government or send you a 1099 unless you make at least $600 annually, but as far as tax obligations go, you're still required to pay taxes on your earnings even if you make less than that.

But as UzukiCheverie said, the rules I mentioned are for U.S. citizens.