Who completes the tax form (W-8BEN)?

Hello people. This is my first devex request. When I get asked to fill my tax form, do I let one of my parents complete it? I’m only 16. When I clicked on cash out I put my name, my email. Does it matter?

All I want to know who completes it. I’m under 18. Does my mother or father complete it, or I can put my info there? (I want my money to go to my student bank account).

Thanks.

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Your parent/guardian can submit the tax form under a company or their name. Make sure when you enter payment details to include one of their names. One of your parents will submit the tax form and can choose to put the money made (after taxed) in your student bank account.

If one of your parents owns a company (like an LLC for example) they may be taxed less and as a result, you make more money from your game.

If your parents have an accountant/accounting service, the service can handle this for you.

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Hello, my parents are individuals, they don’t own any company. So I need to add my parent name in the payment details only?

I’m pretty sure yes. At least that’s how it works with Google Adsense.
Just make sure to ask your parents before you enter any info—then your parents can complete the rest of the form.

The remaining profit after the amount is taxed will first go through to your parents bank account (through SSN – at least on Adsense) and then they can chose to give you the full profit (without it being taxed) or the profit left (after taxation which may take a while) by transferring it into your bank account.

If you made a lot of money from your game, you could also form an LLC (or a different form of a company) though it would cost 200-300 dollars to keep every year (you would make more profit from less taxation – though the annual upkeep sometimes makes it more expensive than just taxing through a someone’s identity). Both require someone 18 or older, so your parents would have to form the LLC.

I would put it through your parent’s name, as I’m not entirely sure if Roblox offers the feature for paying directly to a company. I know Google Adsense does.

So when withdrawing the money (140 dollars) will be less when it comes in my bank account since some part of it will be used to pay taxes?

Yes. Unless your parents chose to give you the money before it gets taxed. I think usually around 30% gets taxed. Now that you said it’s 140 dollars, definitely put the tax form under your parent’s name as it would not be worth creating an LLC for the 140 dollars. (It would cost more to upkeep the LLC and you would end up losing money)

Yikes, so it’s not enough Roblox takes 70% of your money, but when withdrawing the money to your account takes 30% of it too.

Yep, that’s why #LowerDevEx started, and not that many people want to become developers.

The way you talking makes me think this is more complicated than it should be. I and my parent don’t need to do anything since its everything automated?

No, your parents have to submit the form with their tax details → then everything gets taxed and you get the profit in your bank account once they transfer it

I’m saying after I finishing making the account on Tipalti, if I need to do anything else because on the DevEx article it says:

"All non-U.S. Persons participating in the DevEx program are required to submit a IRS W-8BEN (or other applicable IRS Form W-8) tax form during Tipalti account creation to confirm that you are a non-U.S. person. By signing the IRS W-8 tax form, you are certifying you are not a U.S. person.

As a non-U.S. Person you generally will not receive an annual tax form."

I’m curious if any of my parents need to do anything, or if it is everything automated.

If you do not live in the US, then you submit the form through Tipalti. If you are in the US, then you submit a different tax form–probably a W9

Thanks, I’ll see what will happen since from the article seems for people outside US have it so much easier. I shouldn’t think about it too much.

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