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Why The Rigmarole Epinions?Apr 04 '01 (Updated May 01 '01) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Is it possible for Epinions to make payments for international members easier? I would like to think so.
Epinions is unique. No other Internet-based company I've encountered has set up so many barriers before you're entitled to be paid. It's not just a simple case of doing the work and cashing in on your labor; if this was true I wouldn't be writing this article. Before Epinions will send you a check for providing dozens of articles on a wide range of consumer products and services, you must first do the equivalent of standing on your head while reciting the lyrics to Lonnie Donegan's, "My Old Man's A Dustman". At this point I would be very surprised if many of you aren't wondering what on earth I'm talking about. If you're an old hand at Epinions you might be saying that you've never had any problems whatsoever in being paid. Sure Epinions might have taken what may seem an inordinate time to pay you, but they did pay. So what is this all about? In its simplest terms I am referring to the rigmarole international members must go through before receiving their first check. My Experience The First Step The first point I should note here is that I am yet to receive my first payment from Epinions. At this time I have accumulated approximately seventy dollars in earnings; something I take great pride in achieving. Moreover, with the Australian dollar reaching new record lows with every passing week, being paid in US dollars has never been so good. Some "shock jock" radio announcers here in Australia are referring to our dollar as the "Pacific Peso". Usually I am loathe to agree with anything these extreme right-wing commentators have to say, however, on this point they are "on the money". Anyway I digress... Shortly before Christmas I decided that it was time to get my act together and complete the necessary paperwork to be paid by Epinions. Back then I'd earned around fifty dollars and was feeling confident about my prospects of being paid soon. Moreover, in former times Epinions rewarded its members with up to three cents for every article rating. Fifty dollars was earned in my first two months of membership so you can see why I was feeling so positive. "Click here to be paid" is the sort of link I was looking for when I first became interested in this subject. Unlike a lot of other sites on the Internet, Epinions doesn't make this so easy. To find the necessary information all members must follow these links: 1. "Help" 2. "Frequently Asked Questions: Redeeming Eroyalties Credits" When you reach this stage all international members are divided and separated from US members. On this page Epinions has provided a number of typical questions and answers. Question 8 refers specifically to international member payments. Out of interest and relevance I will provide the details here: I am not a US resident. Why can't I redeem less than $100.00 worth of Eroyalties credits at a time? The U.S. Treasury Department Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires that all copyright royalty payments issued to non-U.S. residents be subject to a 30% withholding tax. Epinions is obligated to withhold this tax for all payments of Opinion Eroyalties credits and Income Share bonuses. As a result, Epinions must carry out and report these payments to the IRS. Some countries have favorable treaties with the U.S. that may reduce the withholding amount. To determine the proper amount to withhold, Epinions must research what withholding obligations apply to the user before issuing a check. Further, when Epinions pays non-U.S. residents, Epinions is required to retain W-8 forms that have been completed by the users. Epinions then pays the IRS the total amount of the withholdings, in conjunction with a Form 1042. Subsequently, Epinions must prepare and issue a Form 1042-S to the user at the close of the tax year. As a result of these complexities, Epinions must spend substantially more time and resources processing an international payment than a U.S. payment. In lieu of passing these costs on to you, Epinions has set a minimum redemption amount of $100 to avoid being overwhelmed. The above statement appears to make sense. Epinions states that they are following the correct legal procedures required by them by the IRS. If they were to do otherwise then I would assume they would be breaching US law. However, there is a part of me that strongly doubts the validity of this statement. Technically it is true, but technicalities often differ from day-to-day realities. The reason for this is simple: no other US company I've encountered employs such an unwieldy process. The Next Step Having read this I then followed the link: "Redeeming your Eroyalties credits". Once there I followed another link: "If you are not a US citizen and you do not reside in the US". "Oh bugger!", or words similar in vein were uttered when I first examined this page. Here all international members learn that they must apply for a "TIN" (Taxpayer Identification Number). This process involves downloading an IRS form (W-7: Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) as a PDF document. At this stage I realised that I couldn't download PDF documents so I had to follow another link and download the necessary software in order to download the document. Simple as that! So with the downloaded software for PDF documents installed I then downloaded the W-7 form and prepared myself to complete it. But before this occurred I was curious to learn how much of my hard-earned money I would keep, and how much would remain in the hands of the IRS. Following another link on this page I learned that for every $100 earned I would keep $90. In effect I would be taxed 10%. Please note that this rate applies to all Australian members; some countries are taxed at the equivalent rate while others are taxed higher or lower. Another Next Step Epinions promises that the process of acquiring a TIN from the IRS takes 4-6 weeks. This is probably true but it takes a lot longer than this before you receive it in your letterbox. Perhaps the US mail sent my letter via Timbuktu. A different US Internet company appears to send my checks via France for some reason. Anyway, last week I got a letter from the US. It was from the IRS. I was excited. My TIN was bound to be enclosed. No it wasn't. Why not? The reason why was because I failed to have my identification papers notarized by the US Embassy here in Canberra. This would verify that the proof of identification I enclosed was genuine. Here We Go Again! Instead of returning my completed form to me I now have to go through the whole process once again. Would it have been so difficult to return my original document in order for me to have it stamped? So now I must: 1. Download another W-7 form 2. Fill in all the details 3. Provide the necessary proof of identification documents 4. Have them notarized by the US Embassy here in Canberra 5. Send them to the IRS in the United States 6. Wait another 4-6 weeks or more But Wait! There's More! By my calculations, and from past experience, the earliest I will receive my TIN is late June or early July. If and when I finally do I can then apply to Epinions to be paid. For international members this involves more paperwork. Another document must be downloaded and sent on to Epinions. The document is called a "W-8BEN" or "Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding". Catchy title isn't it! Epinions promises that you will only have to fill this form out before your first payment, and not subsequent payments. What a relief that is. What Really Bothers Me About The Whole Process Like a lot of other people here at Epinions I take pride in my work. I don't churn them out willy-nilly and I try to make them interesting and relevant. However, there are also many members who make no real effort at all. In fact some are just awful and submit tasteless and vulgar articles. Take a look at member "Farbeyondfilth" for example. I have encountered diseased weasels with more grace and substance than this member. His articles are shocking in all regards. Despite having no morals and displaying all the writing talents equivalent to a forty year old baboon, "Farbeyondfilth" will be paid ten times before I am paid once. This is hardly fair. Final Words It's a long road the international member must walk before being paid at Epinions. I'm still walking it now. I wouldn't like to think that Epinions has made the whole process unnecessarily difficult in order to discourage international members from being paid, but I suspect this is partly true. If Epinions was fair dinkum about it all then they would at least drop the minimum amount from $100 to $50. Downloading forms, filling them in, and waiting for a response from the IRS would be a little less frustrating if we knew that a payment was arriving sooner, rather than later.  |
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