Applicability of form W-8BEN-E / W-8BEN to an Indian citizen

Question

I am an Indian citizen residing in India. I have started working as a consultant for a US-based company since June 2015. I have submitted my first invoice to the company (I will be getting paid in US$) and just received an email from the company that I have to submit Form W-8BEN-E so that no taxed are deducted as the payment will be made from North America to India.

I searched on the web to get Form W-8BEN-E and in instructions found that this form is only for an entity and not for an individual. Since I am working as an individual consultant and not as a company, should I submit Form W-8BEN instead of Form W-8BEN-E?

Also, I want to know what is "Foreign tax identifying number". As I am an Indian citizen residing in India, do I need to get this number for the form?

Thanks.

Answer 1

If you're working as an individual and not a company then you should submit W8-BEN. If you're invoicing the client as a LLC/Corp/Partnership or anything else other than your own private name - you should submit form W8-BEN-E.

You don't have to have a US tax id number, but if you do - write it down. It's either the SSN or ITIN. If you don't have a SSN (usually you wouldn't if you've never been to the US and are not a US citizen), you can ask for ITIN form the IRS via form W7. But you don't really need it.

Foreign tax identifying number is the number you use to identify yourself with the Indian tax authorities.

As long as you don't do any work while physically present in the US, you should not be paying US taxes, and your employer should not make any withholding.

Answer 2

According to this link, PAN in India is the TIN

https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/crs-implementation-and-assistance/tax-identification-numbers/India-TIN.pdf