An easier alternative to getting an ITIN for people self-publishing print or e-books
Getting an ITIN
What is an ITIN and why would you want to get one? An ITIN is an international tax identification number assigned by the IRS to an individual. It’s essentially a way to help make sure that everyone is paying taxes somewhere for money that is made by selling books in the US. For people who live in countries that have tax treaties with the US (like Canada) as long as you have this number it means the company writing your royalty cheques doesn’t need to withhold any money to cover paying taxes to the US government on your behalf.
Some publishers based in the US require that authors who aren’t based in the US register for an ITIN in order for them to pay you your royalties. In the case of self-publishers, many of the companies (Smashwords, CreateSpace, iTunes Connect etc.) require you to submit an ITIN in order to get paid as well. In some cases, like iTunes Connect which is how you submit books to the iBookstore, you can’t even get fully signed up for your publisher account without it. If you are working with an established publisher and this is what they require of you, then you may find this article by Christy Pinheiro on how to get an ITIN helpful. However, if you’re self-publishing and don’t want to wait the months that it might take to get your ITIN, we’ve got a solution for you.
How to get an EIN
An EIN is an employer identification number. You may have noticed that when signing up for your publisher account with some of the above mentioned companies, the line says “enter your ITIN/EIN for tax identification purposes” or some variation on that theme. Turns out, an EIN is much quicker and easier to get! And as a self-publishing author, you are the publisher and owner of your own business.
Here is the link to the IRS Page which tells you all about applying for an EIN.
The online method is supposedly fastest, but since I wasn’t 100% sure about the process or how it worked (or if I could even get one) I called the phone number provided. It’s toll-free for people in the US, but you have to call a long-distance number from any other country. However, don’t worry – the call from start to finish was only 10 minutes (so $1.00 in long distance fees) and the service itself is free. By the time I hung up the phone from that call, I had my EIN written on a paper in front of me and the official paperwork on the way. Instead of possibly months of waiting for an ITIN, I was ready to go immediately.
Start off your call by explaining that you’re a Canadian author, needing an EIN to sell books through iTunes Connect or CreateSpace. Your agent knows what they are doing and can help you. Don’t be afraid to ask if you’re not sure what something means!
Here are some tips regarding the questions that I wasn’t sure about, but the agent was kind enough to help me with.
- your business name is your name, and they can fill in a DBA name if you’re not incorporated or whatever but are using a business name.
- you’re applying as a foreign entity
- you don’t have any US employees
- you’re applying to be in compliance with the IRS regulations (why are you applying?)
- you’ll need to know the date when you started selling things (or they use current date if you haven’t started yet)
- e-book publishing is your principal activity
For most places you can enter that number right away and it only becomes relevant when royalties are actual paid out. For the iTunes Connect account, you will most likely need to wait 1-2 weeks after you get your EIN number assigned before it’s officially entered into the IRS database and apple can process your application properly. But 1-2 weeks is infinitely better than a few months!
Good luck – and let me know how you find the process!
Hi Crystal, thanks for the newsletter. This how to for the EIN is great. I’m getting ready to go to print for a couple of my ebooks. Will Amazon accept the EIN in place of the ITIN?
Hope all is going well with you and Jared,
Take care,
Jim
Hi Jim.
Yes! Amazon CreateSpace, Kindle, Kobo (Writing Life) and iTunes Connect (the iBookstore) have all accepted it no problem in place of the ITIN. It essentially is an ITIN, it’s just for companies instead of individuals. I’m just prepping a nice detailed post on how to format and post ebooks to all those places I mentioned – it will probably in your inbox with the next newsletter. I’m detailing all the resources for PC users as well as MAC users as well as the most efficient step-by step plan for how to prep your files for those who are using the basics – word, pages or openoffice to make their files
Hi Crystal,
Just curious how this works for doing taxes. Will you have to pay IRS taxes even though you are foreign publisher? Im debating if should use an aggregator to get into the iBookstore or deal with apple directly. How have things been since you posted this great article?
Hi Michael,
My understanding (although I’m not an accountant) is that the point of getting this number is so that you don’t have to file through the IRS – it’s letting them know you will be claiming it on your Canadian tax return, and they have an arrangement with the Canadian government regarding that. There are lines for foreign income/other income/royalties and I would imaging our accountant would be listing that income in one of those sections – but you should check with an accountant (or call the IRS to confirm).
There’s also a really helpful article with detailed additional information HERE.
Thanks Crystal the info you posted is really helpful! Just signed up to get my ISBN numbers yesterday. I’m going to do a bit more research before I call the US to get the EIN. Do you have any books available in the iBookstore?
The information and steps outlined here were very helpful. I was afraid I’d have to apply for the ITIN, which would have been a bit tedious.
On the phone to the IRS right now as i write this comment…… NOT SO SIMPLE, and certainly not 10 mins as outlined above……. I had waited 34 mins only to be transferred and told by an automated voice that i’m in a “Plus 30 mins Queue”…….. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
And i thought the USA was the cutting edge of the world ……..
Hi Dan,
That’s too bad you’re finding this a struggle. That length of wait is definitely not what most people experience. Some of the issue re: time on hold I would expect is caused by timing. Last two weeks of the year to get it sorted out, and then I believe the rules are changing in January so that you can’t back-claim the taxes back anymore. Which means everyone needs to process before the end of the year or miss out on last year’s witheld royalties being returned.
I have contracts with a self-publishing Publisher in the United States, but I am a Canadian author. Just finding the correct forms and submission contacts, and finding out what is required from the American Self-Publishing company has been somewhat of a mystery. At the moment, I am told the IRS is not processing ITIN, and the contact from their website said they did not know when this would begin. Obtaining an ITIN is indeed complex..just the preparation. I just found your website, and one other, suggesting this alternative, but you mention here that…it is e-books. Mine is Print on Demand..actual books. You say..I become my own publisher…but is this true in my case? Something makes me believe this will not apply in my case.
I think if you’ve actually signed contracts with a self publishing company in the US then THEY are the publisher – not you. Which means an EIN is not going to work for you. But it’s probably worth investigating further with a phone call – just be warned, as Dan shared with us it’s really, really busy at the IRS right now so you may have longer than normal wait times if you’re calling in!
Hi Crystal,
Just want to THANK YOU a thousand times.. you saved me from getting the complex ITIN to be able to publish my french Children’s eBook online!
I just called this morning, no wait, a pleasant lady on the phone, got my EIN in 7 minutes after 6 weeks trying to get an ITIN!
I prepared my call by filling out the SS4 form before, so I was aware of all the questions and the IRS lady was going through the form with me… at the end, got my EIN right away!
You made my day! Thanks again!
I followed Crystals instructions up above and got my EIN. Everything worked out and dealing with the iBookstore as well as Kobo has been pretty straightforward. My brother and I have our photography book online in the iBookstore as well as Kobo store : Dark Stars Photography Volume 1. http://darkstarsphoto.com/photobooks
However the tax aspect is a little unclear I spoke with my accountant and they mentioned that I may still have to declare income being generated via 1040NR tax form but more than likely will not have to pay tax due to treaties and the whole non-resident alien thing. Even if I owe money to the IRS im just going to keep working on the next project because no risk no reward.
I am living in Vancouver Canada and I am planning to register home based business USA and so do i need to get EIN or ITIN which is better and how long it will takes,how can i get my check, will delivery to Vancouver address or do i need USA address for my check??
Thanks
Hana
Hi Hana,
It all depends on how you intend to file your taxes – you should definitely check with your accountant before making a decision about what addresses to use etc.
Hi Crystal
Thanks so much for sharing this information with us
Will this work only for self-published authors?
Will it work for setting up a campaign on Kickstarter.com?
Hi Kayvee,
You have to be your own company, and so it works if you’re self-publishing your work, or if you’re publishing other people’s work.
I am not sure about kickstarter, but I bet if you called the information line number that is given in the article and asked, they could give you more information.
Thanks so much
You rock!
Thanks Crystal! I did get my EIN number and there is one alpha digit in it. I try to enter it into Createspace, but it won’t accept it because all the numbers have to be numeric. Is your EIN fully numeric?
Mine is like this: NN-ANNN (N- Number digit, A-Alpha digit)
Helga
Helga,
You might want to give them a call and double check that. Mine’s all #’s for sure…
Good luck!
Let me give the format again … NN-NNNANNN
Thanks again.
Hega
Thanks for this write up, phoned this morning and got my EIN number in 11 minutes and 50 seconds.
Thank you! I was worried I had to get my passport notarized and all this nonsense before I could get an ITIN.
Cheers!
Thank you for your well written walk-through of how to quickly obtain an EIN from outside of the US. As I was in the process of setting up an iTunes Connect account, it was exactly the information that I need!
Thank you!
I also had great customer service from the IRS also.
regards
Tony
I was wondering if you setup your own corporation or are you an sole proprietor ? I am going to register as a corporation and wonder if the Ein would still work???
I’m set up as a sole proprietor, but the folks at the IRS office could tell you if it works for a corporation too. My expectation is that it does, because when you first start the sign up process they give you several types of legal structure for your company to choose from
But when you call them, they’ll walk you through all your choices.
Thanks for this Crystal,
I just got my EIN today. I was lucky and got through quickly and dealt with a professional and helpful rep.
One question I have is, do I have a way to get some of the money back they are withholding? I got a check a couple weeks ago for book sales for $520 but made $836. That HURT!
Thanks!
Hi Rick,
Here is a link to an article that tells you what forms to use and it covers a few of the vendors, and describes one author’s experiences with the process: http://catherineryanhoward.com/2012/01/04/the-itin-30-withholding-tax-refund-saga-an-update/
Start by following her instructions, and if that doesn’t get the results you want then contact the help team at whichever of the POD services you were using.
Good luck!
This was so helpful! Thanks!
So grateful for all the info from everyone. From Canada called 267-941-1099 was on hold for about 10 minutes and before another 10 had passed had my EIN. My agent wasn’t too thrilled when I told her that I didn’t need the SS4 form, but I told her I had reviewed it so that helped. I also made sure I spelled out everything using words: “S as in Sam” etc. She was pleasant but I think these people are so rooted into the forms they have to fill out there isn’t much cognitive thought, or maybe their procedure doesn’t allow them to go off script. For anyone about to do this, remain patient and let them do what they have or need to. DONE!!!