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Depending on the type of US tax form and information entered by the payee, the payee may be required to provide additional documents for verification and/ or an explanation as to why certain information was entered. The following table provides examples of when additional documents are required.

US Tax Form Type Trigger for Document required Evidence Required Acceptable Documents
W-8BEN
  • Permanent residence address is in the US.
  • Mailing address is in the US.
  • Payee country is the US.
  • Phone number is in the US.
 Evidence of non-US address/ treaty address (only if treaty is being claimed) AND explanation of US address
  • Passport
  • Driver's license
  • National ID
W-8BEN
  • Payee payment country is the US.
  • Payee payment country is different from the treaty country.
  • Payee country is different from the treaty country.
  • Permanent residence address is different from the treaty country.
  • Mailing address is different from the treaty country.
 Evidence of treaty address
  • Passport
  • Driver's license
  • National ID
W-8BEN Selecting:
  • I am signing on behalf of someone else, under power of attorney.
  • I certify that I have the capacity to sign for the person identified on line 1 of this form.
 Authorization of the listed representative(s) to inspect and/ or receive confidential tax information and to perform the acts on another's behalf (e.g., IRS Form 2848) Power of attorney
W-8BEN Selecting:
  • I am signing on behalf of someone else.
  • I certify that I have the capacity to sign for the person identified on line 1 of this form.
 Explanation for signing on behalf of someone else without power of attorney (POA)  
W-8BEN-E
  • Permanent residence address is in the US.
  • Mailing address is in the US.
  • Payee country is the US.
  • Phone number is in the US.
 Evidence of non-US status/ treaty eligibility (only if a treaty is being claimed)
  • Organizational document
  • Certificate of residence
W-8BEN-E
  • Payee payment country is the US.
  • Payee payment country is different from the treaty country.
  • Evidence of treaty address
  • If no treaty is being claimed, evidence of non-US address is required.
  • Organizational document
  • Certificate of residence
W-8BEN-E
  • Payee country is different from the treaty country.
  • Permanent residence address is different from the treaty country.
  • Mailing address is different from the treaty country.
 Evidence of treaty address
  • Organizational document
  • Certificate of residence
W-8BEN-E P.O. box or in-care-of (c/o) address is entered on the tax form. Evidence of registered P.O. box or c/o address AND explanation of registered address Organizational document
W-8IMY Submission of tax form Withholding certificate AND withholding statement Withholding certificate AND withholding statement

Payers are notified to review explanations and additional documents provided by the payee. Review and approve (or reject) these documents on the Documents tab or the Payees > Documents subtab (see Find payee documentation). If rejected, a reason must be provided, as an email notification containing the reason is sent to the payee.

Document status can be tracked in the Tipalti Hub—it is indicated together with the payee's tax form status (see Tax form statuses). Payees are not considered payable by Tipalti until all electronic tax forms have been submitted and all manual tax forms, explanations and additional documents (if required) have been approved.

Once approved, payees can view these documents in the iFrame or Supplier Hub; however, they are unable to remove documents. If payees upload another document of the same type, the previously uploaded document is replaced with the new document, which then requires approval.