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Hi there,
I am new to all that PRO stuff so forgive me any stupid question. Being a composer from Germany I started to offer some of my tracks in production music libraries last year. For several reasons I joined BMI and not german PRO Gema.
My questions are about the W-8BEN form:
Part II, line 10: in last years form (Rev. february 2014) they only asked for the treaty´s article but in this years form they also ask for the paragraph (Rev. january 2017). Do you know which article and paragraph to fill in or will filling in only the article number ok?
Part I, line 5 and 6: is it really necessary to obtain an ITIN or EIN to fill in (line 5) when you fill in your foreign TIN (line 6)?
Thanks!
Hi,
I am a composer from The Netherlands and i came across the same issues.
It took me a long time to figure out how to get a ITIN.
It turns out that with ASCAP, they can work with the TIN of your home country.
However you can easily aks for a EIN at the IRS through one phone call.
It takes 10 minutes of your time and you have to tell them that you are a sole propietor( wich you are if you make music for a living).
The hard part is not recieving royalty checks, because they are very expensive to cash in the Netherlands. But to apply for an American bankaccount is much harder..Thank you so much!
After having gone through all the posts Art provided and having read your reply, Ruiz, I think I will have a try and get me an EIN from IRS.Yet, that picky issue regarding treaty article-and-paragraph in this year´s W-8BEN Part II, line 10. Would be great if anyone knew something to say on that issue, too.
Well, there are different tax treaties with each country. In the US-Dutch treaty it’s article 13, paragraph 1.
It could be a template that’s the same for different countries, but i would aks a German Tax consultant for this one!The hard part is not recieving royalty checks, because they are very expensive to cash in the Netherlands. But to apply for an American bankaccount is much harder..
Can you set up direct deposit / money wire to a non US bank account?
Mark Petrie is right about deposit/money wire thing.
I used to get the checks from BMI (i’m in Greece) and this year decided to fill in the BMI form for direct deposit.
The reason is exactly what you said Ruiz;very expensive cash in (the bank kept $80 from every check!!!),not to mention that the checks needed anywhere from 3-6 weeks to arrive to my door…Now i get my money the same day the quarterly statements are issued and the cost is a little over $3 🙂
Check with your bank though,the costs for wire transfers can differ from country to country.Hi, I’m also a german musician searching for a suitable P.R.O. (maybe BMI, why did you choose them ?!) and I also need to fill out that w8ben and need to get a EIN in order to do that 😛 Have you come to a solution yet ? Maybe we could chat about it somewhere. greetings!
I’m also a german musician searching for a suitable P.R.O. (maybe BMI, why did you choose them ?
Hey,
I did not choose GEMA for several reasons among others because the library I wanted to do business with surely did accept most PRO tracks (say, BMI) but not GEMA, at least at that time.
Another reason was that GEMA would have asked me to list in detail each track not being meant to be included in other words which should remain royalty-free, and that would have resulted in hours and hours of bureaucratic work which I wanted to avoid.During my research, I had a phone call with a nice guy from GEMA, Berlin, who answered all my questions. If you have specific PRO related questions just call them.
BMI (USA as well as UK) is also good at replying to emails though sometimes it may take one or two weeks later.
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