I recently did a number of work tests for an American company as part of an application process for which they offered to compensate applicants with a one off honorarium (~$2000). However, I am a British student who hasn't ever paid tax in the UK (or the US!). I've been asked to fill out a W-8BEN (https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-8-ben) form and I am very confused. Given that is is a one-off payment and will be highly likely to be my only income from a US source in this financial year, what even is the tax rate? What is my tax status as a UK student? Will I need to go through the 6 week application process for a foreign tax identification number from form W-7 just for this one-off payment? The form refers to 'benefits of a tax treaty' - are there any resources for finding out these things? Besides just downloading a reading the entire UK-US tax treaty (https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/tax-policy/treaties/Documents/uktreaty.pdf )....
Submitted January 25, 2019 at 04:37AM by SzaryHouse http://bit.ly/2TcMoBR