Changes to how we collect Billing Details

Envato Announcements
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Hi everyone,

As we prepare for Expanding to America, we’re making a change to the way we collect Billing Details for users that have submitted a W-8 or W-9 form for tax purposes.

The information that you enter in your W form must be accurate for compliance with IRS regulations. These forms capture the same information that make up your Billing Details. From today, if you’ve submitted a W form and you want to update your Billing Details you’ll need to submit a new W form with your new information.

We’ve made it easy for you to get to the W submission process from the “Checkout” context and “Personal Information” context, where Billing Details are set.

Under “Invoice & Credit Notes Settings” you now have the option to hide your name and company name on invoices to Buyers.

For those of you who have already submitted a W form, we will update your current Billing Details based on your most recent W submission. This update will apply for your purchases and sales from today.

If you’ve updated your Billing Details since submitting your W then they will be changed back to match your W. If your address has changed since your last W submission then please submit a new one.

As part of this release, we’ve also made it possible for US users to enter a non-US address in their W-9 submission, which has been a minor hurdle for some of you.

Thanks very much and give us a shout if you have any questions.
Ben

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Cheers!  

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I have selected “Hide your personal identity” as suggested here as well, however, looking at invoices on my statement page, I see my full name, username AND address. I thought this is supposed to not show personal identity. Prior to this update, it used to show my full name and username only.

Is this a bug or perhaps I’m seeing my full-name and address because i am viewing the invoice on my statements page as the author ? :disappointed: Can staff verify ? Thanks! :pray:

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@guicookie Same here! My full contact details are shown on the latest invoices even I have selected to hide them from the day you announced this feature. Do we need to re-enter the w8 form again in order to make this work?

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Hi Typps, I am the product management contact for the finance area of envato market. I can confirm that your details are presented to the buyer as advertised. I just checked them for your most recent sale and this is definitely the case. If you would like I could email you a shot of how your author details are presented to the buyer. I cant send you the whole invoice from the buyers perspective, but your details I can send.
Please let me know if this is something you would like. I have it in my clipboard as I write :slight_smile: btw we test all our finance code very thoroughly, not to say something could not slip through, but our team appreciates the gravity of code quality in the finance area of the system… If you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to post them here.
Adam

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Hi Giorgio,
I am the product management contact for the finance area of envato market.

I can confirm that your details are presented to the buyer as advertised.
I just checked them for your most recent sale and this is definitely the case. If you would like I could email you a shot of how your author details are presented to the buyer. I cant send you the whole invoice from the buyers perspective, but your details I can send. Please let me know if this is something you would like.
Thanks for engaging with us in this forum, we appreciate your feedback.
Adam

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Hi @Danga12,
Thanks for your reply. Yes, I would like a screenshot of the invoice from the buyers perspective. Kindly send it to me via email. Thank you again!

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Hi Adam, Yes I would like to see a copy of this, many thanks! However note that I have checked the “Hide your personal identity” field in my invoice and credit note settings page.

I was under the impression that by checking this field, my details wouldn’t be presented to the buyer and revert back to previous behavior prior to this change.

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The invoice we view has all our personal details on it, the invoice the buyer gets has much less details on it. I believe I saw a screenshot of this when the invoices were announced.

It’s certainly scary seeing all your personal details on the invoice when you click it, there is nothing to say the buyer hasn’t received these details. I don’t really want someone rocking up at my front door asking for WordPress support lol

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It’s not clear what information is shared or hidden upon checking the new setting under “Invoice & Credit Note Settings”. A sample will be appreciated.

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“Invoice & Credit Note Settings” it will active after Jan 1 ? Currently it is not working or not active, yet…

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I need to enter my EU VAT number in the “Personal Information” area but everything is locked.

If I resubmit the W form in the “Tax Information” area nothing changes and everything remains locked.

How can I update my information in the “Personal Information” area? Is this a bug?

I tried to resubmit the W form as an individual and also as a corporation just to test if I was able to unlock the fields on the “Personal Information” area but nothing changes.

A fast reponse from the staff would be appreciated.

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Hi Typps,

The checkbox does what the text underneath it states, which is to “hide your name or company name on new invoices or credit notes. Your username will still appear.”

I have emailed you the screen shots showing that this is the case.
Note that your street number and street name are always suppressed from the buyers view of the invoice or credit note.
Hope this helps. :slightly_smiling:

Cheers,
Adam

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Hi Giorgio, done. :slightly_smiling:
Cheers,
Adam

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Is the full address specified on the tax documents shown to the buyer or is that on author invoice only?

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Hi Codestar, we have lots of features going live on Jan 1st for the “Coming to America” launch. So we put the w-form changes out in advance, and put the “Hide your personal identity” out at the same time as those in order that authors can control whether their first name & surname / company name are visible to buyers on invoices and credit notes.
Cheers,
Adam

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Hi Adam, thanks for providing the screenshots! I can confirm that my full name, street name and street number are not shown in the buyers invoice once you select to hide them. In that case, only the username, city/town, postal code and country are shown.

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Makes sense now, thanks so much for the sample. Helped a ton :pray:

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@Danga12 Thanks for information :wink:

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everytime i read this…i read it like… as we are preparing to invade America
and i just lol very hard

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