I used to sell a few of my paintings as prints via the website zazzle.co.uk.
However they recently asked me to fill out an IRS form as they instructed me as a zazzle is a USA company they must collect 30% tax from me as a non usa citizens on any earnings.
I seem to remember that America was founded on the pricipal of
no taxation without representation..
So my question... will i get to vote in their elections?
Of course not.
edit: Turns out the USA and the UK have a tax treaty (I had to find this out myself. zazzle were extremely unhelpful and gave no indication this was the case). As a UK resident we can't be taxed by both the USA and the UK on royalties.
It seems insane that Zazzle.co.UK should make it's UK resident artist jump though hoops to get paid. I suspect they want to pocket the UK artist's earnings by making it difficult and complex to collect. A very sneaky way to do business. Surely being a uk resident (they ask for your address for payment) should mean there would be no need to waste our time having to fill out a form, and if we have to, they could at least fill it out for us, without my having to look up complex international tax information!!!
I'd suggest using the far nicer Redbubble.com as they're based in Australia and have offices in the UK too. I've always found their site to be run by real people with humour and a real love of art.
You can see my profile on the redbubble site here: Samuel Durkin Art prints
Comments
To prevent the hassle of filling out all the tax form stuff, I decided that all my eBooks would be free. Problem solved!