Freelancers outside the US onboard and get paid in Worksuite the same way as US freelancers, with one difference: they sign a W-8 form instead of getting a W-9. This guide shows how to collect the right W-8 form in your onboarding workflow, fix a wrong form request, and make sure your non-US freelancers can be paid.

Who can do this: Admins

Availability: Available in accounts that use onboarding workflows. Paying freelancers through Worksuite needs Global Pay.

Your workspace may use a different name for Partners, such as Freelancers or Contractors.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Which tax form each freelancer gives
• How the Tax information stage handles non-US freelancers
• Set up W-8 collection in your workflow
  • Before you start
  • Add the stages
• Where submitted forms are stored
• Fix a wrong form request
• Accept a W-8 signed outside Worksuite
• Get non-US freelancers ready to be paid
• Contracts for work outside the US
• Check onboarding progress
• Related articles
• Support/Resources

Which tax form each freelancer gives

• A freelancer never needs both W-8 forms. The form depends on whether they report to their tax authority as an individual or as a business.
• Freelancers who file taxes in the US never need a W-8 form.
• Worksuite's 1099 filing covers freelancers who file US taxes. See United States Tax Filing: 1099 Form FAQ for Pay Customers.

This article explains how Worksuite collects these forms. It isn't tax advice. For questions about a freelancer's tax status, talk to your tax advisor.

How the Tax information stage handles non-US freelancers

The Tax information stage asks every freelancer In which country do you file taxes? and How do you report to your tax authority?, plus their tax ID. It generates a W-9 only when the country is United States. For any other country, their tax information is complete without a W-9, and no W-8 form is generated. To collect W-8 forms, add the stages below to your workflow.

Set up W-8 collection in your workflow

Before you start

• Make sure your account has W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E agreement templates. You can create them as One-off templates in Settings → Templates → Agreement (see Set Up and Maintain Your Agreement Templates), or contact Worksuite Support for help setting them up.
• Decide which workflow your non-US freelancers go through.

Important: Adding agreements to a workflow that's already in use can send them to everyone in it. To apply these stages only to new freelancers, duplicate the workflow first and make the changes on the copy. See How to Manage Workflows: Stages, Stage Managers and Moving Talent.

Add the stages

1. Go to Workflows → Workflows, open the workflow and click Edit workflow.
2. If the workflow doesn't have a Tax information stage, click Partner-facing stage and choose Tax information.
3. Click Partner-facing stage and choose Request data. Click Add content to this stage and add a Single-choice list question, such as "Where do you file taxes, and how?", with three options: US person, Non-US individual and Non-US business. Tick Mandatory, then click Save & close.
4. Click Partner-facing stage and choose Sign agreement. Under Select agreements, choose your W-8BEN template.
5. Add a second Sign agreement stage and choose your W-8BEN-E template.
6. Click Save workflow. You'll see "Workflow has been updated."
7. Click Edit workflow again. Open the three-dot menu on the W-8BEN stage and click Add condition.
8. Set Source to Workflow question, Field to your question, Operator to equals (=) and Value to Non-US individual. Save the condition.
9. On the W-8BEN-E stage, open the three-dot menu, click Add condition and set the same Source, Field and Operator, with Value set to Non-US business. Save the condition.
10. Click Save workflow.

Each stage now shows its condition, such as 'Only if "Where do you file taxes, and how?" is Non-US individual'. Each freelancer who reaches these stages sees only the form that matches their answer. US freelancers skip both W-8 stages and get their W-9 from the Tax information stage.

Before you invite real freelancers, test the workflow with a test profile.

Good to know about conditions:

• Add condition is greyed out on a stage until the workflow has been saved with that stage in it. That's why you save in step 6 first.
• The condition is checked once, when the freelancer reaches the stage. Changing the answer later doesn't route them again.
• If you duplicate the workflow, open each stage in the copy and check its condition.

Where submitted forms are stored

• W-9: open the freelancer's profile and go to More info → Tax information, then click Download W9 Form. Earlier versions are under Previous Tax forms.
• W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E: open the freelancer's profile and go to Documents. The signed form is listed under Agreements with their other signed agreements.

Fix a wrong form request

A freelancer may be asked for the wrong form. The usual cases are a US freelancer asked for a W-8, an individual asked for a W-8BEN-E, or someone asked for both W-8 forms. Onboarding stays pending until the requested form is cleared.

1. Check the freelancer's answer in the Request data stage and their tax information on their profile under More info → Tax information.
2. If their individual or business answer is wrong, ask them to correct it in Settings → Tax information and save.
3. Contact Worksuite Support with the freelancer's name, their workflow or Contract, and the form they should get.

Support clears the wrong request, so the freelancer can complete onboarding with the right form.

Accept a W-8 signed outside Worksuite

If a freelancer can't complete the form online and sends you a signed PDF, contact Worksuite Support before you upload it. Support confirms how to record it and how to move the freelancer past the W-8 stage.

Get non-US freelancers ready to be paid

• Bank details: the freelancer selects their bank account country and currency at the top of the bank details form. The fields that follow depend on that choice. See How to Add Your Bank Details and Fix Common Errors.
• Payable status: a freelancer needs valid bank details and complete tax information before you can schedule their invoices. See Global Pay: Payable Requirements for Freelancers.
• Country coverage: Worksuite can't send payments to some sanctioned or restricted countries and regions. See Global Payment Coverage.
• Timing: payments to bank accounts outside the US take a few business days longer than US payments. See Global Pay Overview.

If you try to schedule an invoice for a freelancer whose tax information isn't complete, you'll see "Partner has missing tax information."

Contracts for work outside the US

• The 1099Policy insurance stage offers only US states and Washington, DC as job locations. If your Contracts use that stage, use a Contract template without it for work done outside the US.
• Engaging someone in another country can raise classification questions. Talk to your Business Solutions Architect before you engage.

Check onboarding progress

Open the workflow and filter by Stage to see who is waiting on each W-8 stage. A freelancer waiting on a W-8 stage hasn't signed the form yet, or was sent the wrong one.

Related articles

• Automatic W9 Stage: how the W-9 is generated for US freelancers.
• Tax Information: Which Tax Form You Get and How to Fix Common Errors: what your freelancers see on the tax information form.
• The Workflow Editor 2.0: How to Get Started: adding stages and questions to a workflow.

Support/Resources

Still have questions about onboarding non-US freelancers? Click Support in the bottom-left corner of Worksuite to contact our Support team, or email support@worksuite.com. Including a link to the page you're on and a screenshot helps us answer faster.