When invoicing US organisations, we are frequently asked to supply a W-8BEN-E. This is a US tax form which is required to ensure that withholding tax is not deducted from payments made to us. The form is not filed with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), but kept on file by the ‘customer’ as proof that they did not need to deduct tax. We are occasionally wrongly asked for various other IRS W8 or W9 forms, but the W-8BEN-E is the only one that should be completed by the university.

A W-8BEN-E can be provided by Ruth Evans in the Tax Team ruth dot evans at warwick dot ac dot uk. Please send a request to Ruth, including details of the name of the US customer, what has been supplied and the amount. A copy of the invoice is often the simplest way of providing the detail. Ruth will then assess whether there is a need to look further into the US tax consequences, or will provide the W-8BEN-E.