Back in November 2013 I blogged that Linden Lab should be asking new Marketplace merchants to fill in a W8-BEN or W9 form as part of the registration process. At that time Linden Lab had announced that new marketplace merchants would require a status of payment info on file.
My thinking behind this was based on the fact that this was a requirement to sell on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Therefore Linden Lab would be killing two birds with one stone, they would be gathering required information that may later be required for tax and account purposes and asking for information to try and discourage people from selling dodgy content on the marketplace.
I have been reminded of these issues this evening because security orb creator Psyke Phaeton has announced : HSOrb now Open Source. Psyke Phaeton acct terminated Aug 28th by LL. Psyke is not American and does not want to fill in the required documentation. The orb will now be open sourced and released with a Creative Commons 4.0 licence. The Orb is available now on the SL Marketplace.
Now of course, were new marketplace merchants required to fill in a W8-BEN, that would make no difference to Psyke’s position. However it may well have meant more people were familiar with the processes and more people were in a position to offer advice and assistance to those who are receiving these requests.
Linden Lab do provide information on why people are being requested to provide this information, which basically boils down to US law. The information is a little lacking because there are still questions regarding whether Linden Lab need employee ID numbers or not, the cases vary. However the information is far better than when people first started receiving these forms.
One of the problems with the requests Linden Lab send out is the hostile nature of them. Long standing residents, whose accounts have always been in good standing in many cases, are told if they don’t provide this information within 28 days, their accounts will be suspended. Now whether Linden Lab need to do that, I really don’t know, but the message is undoubtedly hostile.
Another issue with these forms is who receives them? I filled one in for Amazon KDP, although my international best seller is yet to see the light of day.
The process wasn’t that painful. However having filled one in for Amazon does not excuse me from having to fill one in for Linden Lab or Paypal. The conclusion I draw from this is that the companies themselves receive the information and I further assume, that if the IRS ask for evidence via way of an audit that Ciaran Laval really has filled in one of these forms, then the company will be able to prove that.
I firmly believe that to avoid pain in the future, it’s better for Linden Lab to get this out of the way early in the process. As well as new Marketplace merchants providing this information, first time sellers on the LindeX should also provide this information, this way people won’t have been in Second Life for ten years or so and then been shocked at having a threat to suspend their account sent to them.
In circumstances where Linden Lab require further information, let’s not forget there are two processes here, tax or account requirements, people won’t be so unfamiliar with these requests.
These requests are not going to go away, they will come to Linden Lab’s new virtual world, they will come to High Fidelity too, it’s far better to familiarise people with these processes when they are new and keen, that helps to avoid pain in the future.
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