Good news About the 30% Tax Rate Withheld by Medium

Grab a glass of water and feel that I will tell you something new.

Do you live in one of those countries for which Medium charges a 30% tax for not being an American citizen or resident in America? Medium has updated the list of countries that can reduce the 30% tax withheld on payments since February 2020.

I believe that all writers who are not American citizens and non-residents know that there is a fee charged on Medium payments since February 2020, which has left many writers a little out of the ordinary because in some regions like mine, the fee is 30% and the only way to counter this is to be a native or resident of a country that has tax treaties with the United States.

If you didn’t know that, you have no problem. To be a part of the Medium partner program and earn money by writing to Medium, you need a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to validate your Taxpayer Information as approved to receive payments through the Partner Program. And with that, some countries that do not have a tax treaty with the United States are subject to a higher rate than countries that have a tax treaty with the United States. In general, the tax rate withheld for a cash dividend paid by a U.S. company is 30%, varying between the type of payment. we for example who work in stock exchanges as investors, the dividends from stocks and ETFs, are sometimes paid at the rate of 37% because of the effectively connected income (ECI), the tax rate for this type of income is 37%. I hope you have understood so far. For more information read the guidelines here.

Now, what is the news regarding the rates?

In the last few days, a writer from India shared his earnings for the month of October and I saw that the withholding tax had decreased from 30% to 15%, seeing that it interested me to go to the Medium support center to see if there was any update on this. Because I had already written about this subject a while ago and India was not on the list of countries that could decrease the withholding tax rate at Medium. As soon as I saw the information I noticed that Medium updated the list of countries. Now it became more specific and more clear, also the lists of countries increased and there are more possibilities for the writers.

These are the countries that make up the list of countries that can from now on enjoy the discounts on the taxes withheld at source.

“Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Malta, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela. ”

If you are a writer Medium citizen or a resident in one of the countries listed above, you can now proceed with the request to change the data in your Medium account.

How is the claim made to decrease withholding tax?

To claim the change of taxpayer, you must first have the tax number issued in your name by the tax office of the country for which you reside, among those listed above. Once you have the tax number, you will complete and resubmit the W-8 form and at the country, option selects your country of residence in the “Treaty Benefits Claim (Part II)” section. After reviewing the data, Medium will approve your claim and immediately the 30% rate will decrease according to the country of residence. Remember that not all countries have the same rate. For example, India is 15% and Portugal is 10% and Canada is 5%.

I hope this article has helped. For more information, you can consult the Medium support center and you can find more details.

Thank you very much for reading this story.