FAQs: Taxes and Remittances for Partners Outside the U.S.

Environment

SDK or Direct Publisher

SVOD / TVOD / AVOD

Partner Payout Program

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: After uploading my W-8BEN-E form, I'm being asked for either an “organizational document” or “certificate of residence” to verify residency. I do not have a certificate of residency. What can I provide to prove residency?

A: In the absence of a certificate of residency, you can upload a copy of your country-specific articles of incorporation.

Q:  Is there consideration for indirect taxes such as Goods and Services Tax, Harmonized Sales Tax and Provincial Sales Tax over and above the price?

A: Roku, Inc. is registered for Canada GST/HST/QST/PST and as such will collect tax on subscriptions to Canada end-users and remit that tax directly to the tax authorities.

Q: Does the money from subscription services get collected by a US entity or a Canadian entity before transferring to us (partner in CA)?

A: Currently, money is collected by the US entity and distributed from a US bank account. 

Q: Is a user's taxes based on his/her billing address or channel store (where he/she signed up for Roku)?

A: Pricing comes from the price tier file based on the user's country (i.e. channel store), but taxes are calculated based on the user's billing address. Country/channel store doesn't necessarily logically match the billing address information, depending on where the user signs up versus what they input as their billing address. 

Q: Does Roku issue a withholding tax certificate?

A: Roku pays all withholding to the IRS on a monthly basis and will be filing their annual report in January.  At that time, the developer will get a statement with the amount of tax withheld for the year that they can use for tax purposes. Roku does not generally issue a withholding tax certificate to developers.

Q: Who remits taxes, Roku or the partner?

A: As long as this is under Roku Standard billing, Roku submits the taxes to the appropriate taxing jurisdiction – but as a reminder only for countries where we are obligated to do so:

• • EU
  • Canada
  • US

As countries in LATAM change their rules, we will add those countries as well.

Q: During the refund, will the amount to be refunded to the customer be inclusive of prorated tax or will it be net? 

A: On a refund, the customer will be refunded the entire amount, but the reduction of the revenue share will be exclusive of the tax, consistent with the original revenue share calculation.

Q: Will Roku be providing us with remittance reports detailing the transaction reference number, gross amount, amount of tax withheld, amount of service fees per assigned settlement banks?

A: Taxes are handled without the involvement of developers. Transaction reports are available in the developer dashboard.

Q: We notice that in some countries payment is inclusive of tax, and in some countries it is not. For example, Canada is exclusive of tax, but the UK is inclusive of tax. Is there a way for us to know this, in order to display a message to our users, and let them know if tax is included or not? 

A: The presentation of price is always in accordance with local country rules. Currently, we reflect pricing exclusive of tax in the US and Canada. The law in the EU requires that the price is inclusive of tax. 

Q: Do you submit UK VAT to HMRC?

A: Yes, we submit UK VAT to HMRC.