I wasn’t able to find good instructions to fill out W-8BEN-E form for Apple Developer and Google AdMob/AdSense. There were some partial information on different sources, but all information was vague especially for part III. For those in a similar situation, I am sharing simple instructions that they will be able to follow easily. I will also be sharing additional information for Türkiye and Germany. Bu gönderinin Türkçe sürümüne ulaşmak için buraya tıklayın.
Form location on Apple Developer: App Store Connect -> Business -> Tax Forms
Form location on Google AdMob/Adsense: Payments -> Settings -> Manage Settings -> United States Tax Info
Tax Identification Number
I will firstly share information about the tax identification number to fill in the form.
If your Apple Developer or Google AdMob/AdSense account is in Türkiye and it is an individual account, you need to enter your T.R. identity number (and you’ll need to fill out W-8BEN, not W-8BEN-E), Türkiye no longer uses the old tax id numbers. If it is a business account, you’ll need to enter the 10 digit tax id number for your company.
For Germany, there are two kinds of tax id numbers. You need to enter your Steuernummer, not your Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer (VAT-ID). Also you need to enter it in the 13 digit ELSTER format, compatible with the federal scheme. You can find how to prepare the number for different states in this Wikipedia link.
You can add comments below if you’d like to give information for other countries.
Apple
Part I: Identification of Beneficial Owner
For Apple, you open a web form on App Store Connect. Select corporation for item 3, take the tax identification number information above into consideration for item 9b (individual form: item 6a). If you don’t have tax id number in US, don’t fill in item 8 (individual form: item 5), also don’t fill in item 10 (individual form: item 7).
Part III: Claim of Tax Treaty Benefits
Select the first two options under item 14, don’t select the third option at the bottom (individual form: item 9, one option). For type of limitation on benefits provisions almost everyone reading this needs to select company that meets the ownership and base erosion test. If you don’t think this is not suitable for your situation, I strongly suggest you continue with a tax advisor.
Apple says it is generally not needed to fill in item 15 (individual form: item 10) which almost all of us have no idea on how to fill. But, write article 7 paragraph 1 on article and paragraph field, write 0 on rate field and select the option income from the sale of applications. For most countries, the article and paragraph are the same in the treaties, but make sure the treaty for your country is also in the same structure before filling this in. Türkiye treaty, Germany treaty.
Add the following into the explanation field, editing the country and company information:
As a tax resident of (EDIT: COUNTRY), (EDIT: COMPANY) meets required terms of the treaty, doesn’t have a permanent establishment in the US, and doesn’t perform independent personal services in the US from a fixed base in the US; or the right or property in respect of which royalties are paid isn’t effectively connected with a permanent establishment or fixed base.
Part XXX: Certification
After correctly adding everything above, you can select the confirmation options and submit the form.
For Google AdMob/AdSense, you are presented with a much better web form that will guide you. I grabbed the sentence that you need to add on the Apple form above, from the W-8BEN-E form that I filled out with this web form. Take the tax identification number information at the top into consideration when entering your tax id, and follow Google’s instructions. Google’s form automatically fills out the information that refers to treaties by letting you select the necessary options.