Tax and reporting
Collecting tax forms, applying treaty benefits, calculating withholding and meeting annual reporting obligations.
Cross-border rewards create tax obligations on both sides: the researcher's income has to be reported where they are resident, and the paying organisation may have withholding and information-reporting duties. This document covers the workflows the platform provides.
The platform calculates, generates and records. It does not give tax advice, and every organisation remains responsible for its own compliance position with its own advisers.
Tax residency determination
Withholding treatment follows residency, so residency is established first:
- Verification data from KYC Tier 2 (government ID and proof of residence) establishes the researcher's declared residency.
- Jurisdiction is recorded on the researcher profile and drives the applicable withholding rules.
- Changes of residency are recorded rather than silently overwritten, so historical payouts remain explainable.
- Where the declared residency and the payout method's jurisdiction disagree, the mismatch is flagged for review instead of being resolved by assumption.
Digital tax forms
Forms are generated, e-signed and stored in the platform:
| Form | Applies to |
|---|---|
| W-9 | US persons |
| W-8BEN | Non-US individuals |
| W-8BEN-E | Non-US entities |
The platform collects the required form before a payout is released in cases where a form is required, validates the responses for obvious inconsistencies, stores the signed artefact against the researcher profile, and tracks expiry where a form has to be refreshed.
Treaty handling
Where a tax treaty between the researcher's jurisdiction and the payer's jurisdiction grants reduced or eliminated withholding, the applicable treaty benefit is applied to the calculation. Where no treaty benefit applies, the default rate for the jurisdiction is used. Both the rate applied and its basis are recorded on the payout.
Withholding calculation
Withholding is computed per payout and shown to both parties:
gross reward → withholding rate (per jurisdiction / treaty) → net payable
- The rate applied, the treaty basis and the resulting amount are recorded on the payout item.
- Recalculations require a recorded reason, so a corrected payout does not erase the original.
- Aggregate withholding is reportable per researcher per period.
Annual reporting
The platform tracks annual reporting obligations and produces the data needed to meet them:
- Form 1099-NEC — United States.
- T4A — Canada.
- Payment Annual Report — Australia.
- Equivalent summaries for other jurisdictions, driven by the residency and payout records.
Reporting output is generated from the transactions themselves rather than from a separate reconciliation exercise, which is why the transaction trail matters.
AML-aware design
Payouts move money to individuals across borders, so the flow is compliance-first from onboarding onward:
- Identity verification before payouts.
- Source and destination checks on payout methods.
- Step-up verification on sensitive financial operations.
- Retention of the decision trail for each payout.
The platform supports an AML-aware process; the policy that applies to your organisation is yours to define.
Availability and limits
- Tax form collection, residency recording, withholding calculation and reporting exports are available on tiers where payouts are enabled.
- Compliance exports and automated payouts are Professional-tier.
- Nothing in this document is tax or legal advice. Confirm treatment for your organisation and jurisdictions with your own advisers.
Related docs
- Payouts and KYC — channels, cycles and conversion
- Financial operations — wallets, budgets and the audit trail
- Identity and access — protecting the data behind these checks