Storj Node Operator,Our records show that the wallet address below was paid more than $600 USD in 2023 and, in accordance with Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) regulations, Storj Labs Int’l SEZC is required to report this income if you are a US citizen. If you are a U.S. citizen regardless of where you are located: Please send us a completed and signed Form-W9 If you are NOT a US citizen and services provided are outside the U.S.: Please send us a completed and signed Form W-8BEN
A complete address is required and the form should be returned via email to Finance_SNO@storj.io by Thursday, December 21, 2023.
Thank you in advance for your prompt attention.
Wallet address: 0x
What are the consequences if I, as a non-US citizen, choose not to sign the W-8BENA form? Additionally, how is my personal data handled when I submit this form to Finance_SNO@storj.io? Can you confirm that the processing and security measures in place comply with relevant privacy regulations such as GDPR, 152-FZ, PPL 5741-1981, or any other applicable Privacy Protection Laws?
It’s from my understanding that if you don’t file NON-US form then Storj can’t justify not withholding tax from your income. Please see this
It is kept on file with the US payor (in this case, Storj Labs) in case the US payor is audited. If audited, the Form W-8BEN supports why no Form 1099 was issued and why no tax was withheld from the foreign contractor.
In my experience from other websites, as a US company Storj will have to withhold tax since they can’t prove you are NOT a US citizen. Filling up the relevant form proves you are NOT a US citizen hence no dollar amount will be withheld.
Right that is why we ask non US persons to fill in the form. Storj Labs does not withhold taxes and will keep the form on file just in case we get ask in a tax audit for evidence why we did not withhold tax. Afaik, the form will not be submitted to the IRS unless specifically requested in an audit.
What are the consequences if I, as a non-US citizen, choose not to sign the W-8BENA form? → Failure to provide a Form W-8BEN when requested may lead to withholding at a 30% rate (foreign-person withholding) or the backup withholding rate
For the remaining questions Please review our Privacy Policy which is on the Storj website and applies to the handling of personal data
what is the right address for submiting that form: accounting@storj.io (article) or finance_… (email)?
if I don’t receive this email, should I submit the form for nonUS or not? (my SNO email is good, not fake, and I made more than 600$ in 2022 and more than 600$ in 2023).
once the form submited, it is permanent? Or must be submited each year? In what month?
we are paid in tokens, not USD, which have no intrinsic value. Is Storj considered currencie in US?
so if I receive the email and I don’t send the W-8BEN, will storj start withhold up to 30% of my future earnings ? start from 2024 payout date ?
What about income in 2023 ?
like upwork ?
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Without this form as proof that you are based outside the U.S., we’ll be required to withhold up to 30% of your future earnings on Upwork and send them to the IRS. As long as a W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E form is correctly filled out and valid, we are not required to withhold at this rate.
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Please note that I already read your post before you tagged me, and already notified Dorrie, it will not result in a faster answer if you tag me, I read all posts on the forum anyway.
Maybe I sound dumb, but after completing that form, I have some questions. The Docs should clarify the required info in that form, because we obviously are not US citisens and are not accustomed with your laws and forms.
The only certain info you have about a SNO is the wallet address, and maybe email.
How this form is linked to my wallet where I receive the payments? I don’t see any “email” or “wallet” field.
What should I put in the fields: Part I - 5, 6, 7 and Part II?
How can I sign this if I don’t have a digital signature? Is the written signature and scan OK?
The linked info documentation (iw8.pdf) is a mambo jumbo and I can’t understand any of it.
In my opinion, you get the email about filling up the form which is linked to your node. This email will have wallet address connected to it too. When you send the signed document to the email given above, you basically create a chain of custody. This gives Storj a chain/list of steps taken to address why tax was collected or not collected.
As a NON US SNO you wont need to fill up step 5.
6a will be your country’s tax identification number. 6b has FTIN short for Foreign Tax Identification Number and since you filled up 6a, you can ignore 6b.
I would ignore step 7.
You don’t need digital signature as many won’t even know what it actually means. You can print the pdf file, fill it up with a pen, take a picture and send that picture to the email. Scanning is ok too but phones are more common than SNOs having scanners
I would even advise using pdf editor. IIRC there was an offline PDF editor that let me add my signature which is done by moving my mouse on the screen to create my signatgure just like in MSPAINT. It saved the signature in an image and then gave me the option to add it to the pdf.
PS: This is my personal opinion and not a legal advice.
also if you have a Mac you can use Preview to capture your signature and then paste it onto any signature line. I’ve done this quite a bit over the last few decades. Look under Tools → Annotate ->Signature. You a make a signature (or several, like spouse too) and use it to fill out documents.
I wonder if in step 5 you should put your partner’s TIN, aka Storj’s, because this form is for non-US citizens; I don’t think they put a field for US citizens on a non-US form.
And maybe in step 7 you should put the liked id used by your partner for you, like your email or wallet address.
I imagine this form to contain by itself all the needed info to identify you as a person and your ID used by your partner/employer in their systems, regardless of the method you sent it to him or the way he stores it. At least in my country this is the way forms are done; you can find a form in a trash bin 10 miles away in the middle of a field and you get all the info you need to identify the person, his business, his business partners, the income sources, etc.
It makes sense but it will be audited by IRS that knows Storj’s tax info. Even if you don’t fill it they will know otherwise SNOs would be instructed to do so.
If any information is left out or incomplete a second email would definitely be sent to resubmit the form. I doubt if IRS has any knowledge of “wallet address”. Your email is already part of the chain of custody.
This is just as precaution IF Storj gets audited then Storj has to look in to collecting precise info. Collecting such info would require more resources. But till then all this will be on file, encrypted and stored securely (as per Storj’s privacy policy).
