Voip Blog
Form W-9 for Affiliates
Monday, October 09, 2006
Affiliate programs that follow the tax rules require their affiliates (U.S. citizens and resident aliens) to fill out the Internal Revenue Service Form W-9. The purpose of the form is to collect information to report affiliate commission earnings that exceed $600.00 for the previous year. The form also reports the tax withholding status of the affiliate.
Most programs ask the affiliates to download and fill out the W-9 in PDF format. The forms must always be signed. Others, like voip.com, collect the information straight through an online fill-out form. The IRS allows this option to be used by companies as long as the required fields match those on the original W-9. In most cases the completion and return of the form is a requirement to receive the first commission payment.
Once the information is collected, the advertiser sends a 1099-MISC Form to the IRS by February 1 every year for commissions earned the previous year.
The direct link to the form is: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf
