“Every platform wanted a U.S. tax number for the treaty rate. One application fixed all of them at once.”
Background
Kenji sells illustrations and print licences through U.S. platforms. Each platform applied the default 30% withholding because his W-8BEN had no taxpayer identification number, and the Japan–U.S. treaty rate could not be claimed.
What we did
We confirmed that royalties from a treaty country qualify for the treaty-benefit reason, gathered a royalty statement from one platform as supporting evidence, and verified his passport on video from Osaka.
Outcome
The ITIN arrived in eight weeks. Kenji updated his W-8BEN on all three platforms and the withholding dropped to the treaty rate from the next payout.
