Bros I have some questions.
1 How do we know if the ID is valid?
2 I’m from Kosovo and it seems that US and Kosovo
don’t have a tax treaty, so is there a way to DROP lower that damn 30% ?
Are there any options?
3 Will applying for EIN help?
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Hey LostsoundStudio,
Don’t know if you got your answers in other threads, so here you go:
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There is no confirmation. You need to check with the Tax Administration of your country to know which Tax ID number is the right one.
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Unfortunately, if there is no tax treaty between the US and Kosovo, the IRS will withhold 30%. Providing a valid Tax ID, no matter which type, will not help.
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No, since there is no treaty.
The only thing you could do that I can think of, would be to open a business entity in a country that does have a treaty with the US.
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But you must FILL THE W8-BEN form no matter what, because…:
a) if you fill the form, ONLY your sales to USA will be obliged to pay tax (30% , if you don’t have a treraty)
b) if you DON’T fill the form, then ALL OF YOUR sales will be obliged to pay tax 28%
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@PurpleFogSound thanks bro.
It sucks big time. I don’t know how complicated would opening the businesses somewhere else would be.
Thank you for being so helpful and kind.
@Bedros thank you for the advice bro, i filled the w8 in December,
I sold a Music Broadcast License (1 Million) and 4.68 is all I earned!
And 90% of my sales in total are from US.
So it’s going to take 2000 sales to make 1000.
Such a shame , such a shame.
@PurpleFogSound Is that possible to register my business outside somewhere? Would that be legal?
I don’t think I can ‘survive’ in AJ with these conditions !
they say that the market will develop greatly thanks to this , lets’ hope they are right otherwise, some hard times are on the way for many people … as for opening a com pay in another country, i am not sure , i guess that there are probably legal ways to do, but i ave trouble to imagine that u do not need to the concerned country, have some processes to do and so on and i am really not sure that if u ever can manage to find a way u’ll not burn so much money that this is not any better anyway … u should try to collect information with some guys if they know … i am not sure …
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I’m sorry I have absolutely no expertise in this field. But I do know that it is possible to set up a postal address in some countries to “host” your company.
A friend of mine used to open all his business entities in Delaware for instance. Not sure that it would help in this case, but there are other places that are welcoming to new business. However I can’t tell you how legal this is nor how feasible. I have no idea.
Good luck, hope you will be able to sort it all out.
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@PurpleFogSound, @n2n44 thank you for your replies bros,
I appreciate it a lot.
I am in a crossroad right now,
I don’t know what to do, stay or leave.
I made my first Music broadcast sale on 1st Jan 2016,
It was supposed to make me happy , instead of that I got 4.68$
And whats more to come 1$ per soundtrack that we work for days, weeks , months!
Envato really didn’t give a damn about us , the people who don’t have tax treaty with the US.
I am sure there are ways to pass this, but they just didn’t care.
I hate leaving , cuz I had a great 3 month period.
But selling a soundtrack for 2$ it’s a humiliation that I can’t stand!
hi buddy, i guess that u do not get it, people think of this kind of system as a get rich quick thing most f the time, but this is not to say the least, u work a lot and in the best cases, u get pocket monte in return, except for a handful of geniuses (designers or marketers, or both at the same time). Some real talent are already gone from here because this is not the place where u make tons of money for ages … lol this is rather a place for young talent to develop good portfolios and possibly get notice somehow some way , or, other wise a place for confirmed badly paid designers to make a small extra money to survive (and the same thing can be said for freelances too by the way). If i were u, unless u are in an emergency case, i would stick to producing items and post them here , at least for a while, but i am not sure about either your background and situation, so i guess my advice is just sort of an opinion if u wish …
Well thanks for the ’ advice’
It’s not a matter of ‘get rich quick’ friend.
I am a musician for almost 20 years. I play the piano, guitar, bass.
I am a winning composer of movie soundtracks on 2 festivals.
I didn’t come here to be rich. I came here to share my work.
(even though I had to add more commercial stuff here)
I didn’t expect fairy-tales. And I was fine with a half price cut.
(Even though that’s not fair enough)
But taking 4 dollars out of 18 it is a humiliation.
We, the authors are the ones who make people spend money.
Our items makes them buy.
And just because AJ puts them on stock, that doesn’t mean that it is ‘its’ right to take 16$ away.
As I said I was fine with a 50% split.
On the other hand, I’m not dying for AJ money. I am a working musician on my studio and band and also teach music and English.
Im all fine bro, but the tracks I post here, are tracks that I pre-compose them for tv shows, theater plays, movies, etc.
And they pay very much for them, and seeing them being abused by the amount that I get paid its hurtful.
I hope you catch my drift.
Peace, brother.
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