Saturday, February 23, 2013

ITIN for Australian Smashwords Writers

If you want to publish your book on Smashwords  and you are an Australian citizen, your earnings will be taxed unless you have an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).

To get the ITIN you need to make an application to the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS). With your  application, you need a letter explaining why you need the ITIN.

If you publish your book with Smashword they will supply you with such a letter once you’ve got $10 in your account.

So this is what I did.

1. Published my book, ‘1,000+ Answers to Your WeddingQuestions’ with Smashwords.

2. Once I had the $10 in my account I asked Smashwords for a letter to submit with my application to the IRS.

3. This has to be an original letter - not an email - so it was posted to me.

4. Since the IRS requires photo ID I took my passport to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Brisbane, together with my letter from Smashwords, and had them copy my passport which they then authenticated with their seal. Before they did this, they asked me to fill a form to say why I required an ITIN.

5.I then went to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website and downloaded Form W-7, which is the application for ITIN. There is also Intructions on how to complete the form.
I completed Form W-7 on the computer and then printed it out. It has to be sent by post to the IRS department.

6. Together with a short letter explaining why I was asking for an ITIN, I sent the completed Form W-7, the letter I had received from Smashwords, and my passport authentication from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

7. I posted it all to
Internal Revenue Service ITIN Operation
PO Box 149342 Austin.
USA

8. A month or six weeks later I received my ITIN number. They even returned the authenticated copy of my passport.

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