Changes to Payoneer’s policy affecting Russian accounts

[BenLeong]

While Envato’s position regarding payouts to Russian financial institutions has not changed, we have received recent news from Payoneer that may significantly impact some members of our community. On November 15th, Payoneer advised that they will be restricting services in Russia and will no longer support payments to payees that have either:

• a Payoneer account that is registered to a Russian address, or
• a Payoneer account that is registered to a non-Russian address, but is also linked to a Russian bank account.

If you are a payee registered to a Russian address, or are a payee with a linked Russian bank account, you will have received an email from Payoneer advising you about the closure of your Payoneer account. If you have not received an email from Payoneer, it’s likely that you are not impacted. However if you have concerns about your account and the impact, please contact the Payoneer Customer Care team directly.

Here are the key dates, as instructed by Payoneer, which will affect those impacted:

• From 1 Dec: All new Payoneer registrations will be closed.
• From 16 Dec: All impacted Payoneer accounts will be closed indefinitely.

We understand this change will have a significant impact on some of our creators based in Russia and we hope to answer some of the questions you may have in this post. However, we encourage you to contact Payoneer directly with any concerns about your account.

What constitutes a “non-Russian” bank account?

A non-Russian bank account is one that is established outside of Russia. If you have any questions on which bank is acceptable, contact Payoneer’s Customer Care support team directly.

Can you clarify what you mean by "Russian payees”? Does this only affect payees who are residing in Russia, or does it also cover payees who are no longer located in Russia but have a non-Russian bank account?

Russian Authors who have relocated to another country and have a non-Russian bank account, can update their details in Payoneer to be paid as usual. Follow the instructions in your email from Payoneer to confirm this, providing proof of your address and a bank statement.

If my account is affected and I don’t have alternative payment methods, what will happen to my Envato earnings?

We will continue to hold any current and future earnings in your author earnings balance in your Envato account. If you do not wish to accrue further sales, please contact us so that we can assist you. There are options available whereby existing customers will still be able to access their purchased items, but you will not make additional new sales.

[Maj-and-Min]

Thank you for the detailed information (even if this information does not please us).
1 - November and December are hot months for business (a lot of work and projects). There is no time to make changes to payment system.
2 - Payoneer wrote that it will process all payments until December 8th.
Can we discuss receiving the payment for November before December 8th? This will give us time to change the payment system (again ). But it will give us money to buy a bottle of champagne and raise a glass of champagneon New Year’s Eve to the health of the Envato team .

[AlexanderTretiakov]

Can we discuss receiving the payment for November before December 8th?

[BenLeong]

Hi all - I’ve raised these questions with our leadership team.

Envato’s policy since March remains unchanged: we will not pay out any earnings to any financial institutions based in Russia. So we cannot make an early ad hoc payment to authors impacted by the recent Payoneer changes.

If you are among those impacted, Payoneer will have already contacted you regarding the next steps for your account. Otherwise you will continue to receive your monthly earnings payments as usual.

[evgrafovasa]

Здравствуйте! А деньги, которые зависли не отправленные на Twenty20, вы можете отправить на Payoneer?

[vladoskin]

Hello! Please clarify the position on Belarus. On the help page there is a message that the new payment system excludes Belarus and Russia. Is it really so? Authors from Belarus have not received any messages on this issue.

[LumenMedia]

With all respect may be logical step in that case to stop add Russian VAT for every sale of Russian authors? I doubt you pay it for Russian authorities. Thanks. Just an idea

[Phantomatic]

del

[BenLeong]

@vladoskin That section of the “Setting Your Elements Payout Method” Help Centre article is specific to PayPal only, due to their restrictions (it appears at the bottom of the PayPal section). We’ll edit that section in our next update, to make it more clear which payment method this applies to.

@LumenMedia I believe that we are still required to collect this tax, as we are registered for Russian VAT and will still have an obligation to pay it once sanctions are lifted. Essentially, once we are able to release payments to Russian banks again, we would also be sending tax payments at that time.

[LumenMedia]

Thanks for reply.

[Saul-Goodman]

@BenLeong

will still have an obligation to pay it once sanctions are lifted.

Do you think the sanctions will be lifted?

[mdm135]

Can we discuss receiving the payment for November before December 8th?

[LumenMedia]

Sorry, just an example how other market with “M” in name reacts on same situation with Payoneer. "******* believes that creative work should be available to everyone, everywhere, and we are doing our best to keep it this way and conduct business as usual.

For our next payment round (November royalties), we will do our best to make sure you receive the funds before the shutdown - we’re aiming to send the payments on December 8 to avoid any possible rejections." Just a good example how to respect your contributors. P.S. I receive money on non Russian bank, so situation with Payoneer affected me only partially, but honestly speaking this letter that i got today gave me this little warm feeling that someone somewhere see us out of our nationalities and countries

[BigBouncyBright]

Absolutely right. Furthermore, market with “P” in the name and a market with another “M” told the same, and even suggest a few variants. I realize, this is nothing but the words, which don’t change the real situation with a payouts, but it’s really warms and shows who is more fair, who is less in terms of “respect of their authors”