I finally noticed that since July this year Spoonflower has been withholding 30% of my earnings. As New Zealand is part of a tax treaty with the United States of America, and I had never had income withheld before, I had no idea why this started. This is what it looks like if you are wanting to check yours.
After emailing Spoonflower I learnt that...
"Our system has updated to reflect the correct treaty status present on your income tax form. You are seeing these withholdings because the Tax Treaty Benefits portion of your income tax form is incomplete or you are not within a tax treaty country."
So my next problem was getting back in to the Avalara software to submit a new W-8BEN form. You will be given login codes but just remember that if you have logged in before you will have been prompted to change your password. So, the password code may not work and you will have to remember the password you chose. That took me a little longer than I'd like to admit to realize! But I got there in the end.
Thankfully Spoonflower has a great guide on the ins and outs of filling out the form. With details on which postcode to use if you are not in the USA, which income type etc.
Just a sneaky little scenery shot of the pretty little corner of the globe I am lucky enough to call home.
Right, so as far as I can work out New Zealand is party of a tax treaty with the United States of America, and now we only have 5% withheld. I am almost certain it used to be 0%??? If you know please contact me!
Good luck with your tax forms!