- Youtube to start taxing non-US content creators for US viewers
- The update to come into force from June 2021
- Tax rate will range from 0-30%
YouTube recently announced new tax requirements for content creators outside the US on their earnings generated from US viewers.
As early as June 2021 the Google-owned video-sharing platform will start withholding taxes from payments made to creators outside the US by viewers in the US only. The tax rates are between 0-30% depending on the Adsense account and country.
In an email sent to content creators, Google said every creator on the Youtube Partner Program(which lets users make money from their content) is required to provide their US tax info to google in Adsense before 31 May or else Google will take away up to 24 Per cent of their total earnings worldwide(Including non-US viewers).
That is to say, if you make $100 from viewers worldwide google will take $24 from your earnings if you fail to provide the tax info before the deadline. However, if you do provide the tax info, google will only deduct earnings generated from US viewers(30%).
Apart from ad views, google will also be deducting earnings from youtube premium, super chat, super sticker, and channel memberships made from US content consumers.
The move is likely to hit hard on content creators’ earnings worldwide but not as much for local creators because of their audience. In zimbabwe, the majority of content creators use vernacular for their content which suggests that their targeted audience are mostly Zimbabweans or Africa-based. This means not much will be deducted from their total earnings as most of their viewers are not from the US. However, you have to provide your US tax info to stop google from taking 24% of your total earnings before the deadline.
