Ahem.

[rolanni]

Dear Barnes and Noble:

I am yesterday in receipt of your threatening letter, sent to an address on which the forwarding order has long expired, commanding me to file a W9 before January 22 or face fines and reprisals from the IRS.

No, I am not faxing my social security number to a machine that, for all I know and suspect, dials into the mail room at B&N corporate.

You acquired Fictionwise in March 2009, and could have contacted me any time during the intervening nine months in order to acquire an updated W9; you had a working email address; a telephone number; and a PayPal account direction.

This "emergency" is not of my making; it is of yours, and I will be pleased to explain that to the IRS.

Sincerely,

Sharon Lee

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

What's a form W9?

(On second thoughts, I probably don't want to know. I'm a non-resident alien, under no obligation to pay the IRS taxes. It's bad enough keeping up with what HMRC, who I am liable to pay ...)

[lagilman]

the form actually allows THEM to pay US. Which we will later have to pay taxes on.

It is, from what I've been able to learn, a sizable lack-of-information-transference between B&N and Fictionwise that makes me wonder about the bookkeeping, not to mention due diligence, done in that acquisition...

[caoilfhionn.livejournal.com]

There was a time when I ran a small book distribution business that sold to B&N both direct and through wholesalers. My impression is that B&N figures it is so big and so important to bookselling that, if they flail enough and play dumb, the little people will do the paperwork for them. The burden of bookkeeping is never on them.

But they still deduct them

[mtz322.livejournal.com]

Because if they don't have either a W-9 for residents or a W8-BEN for non residents, then the company has to withhold tax at a fixed rate and send it to IRS.

Paying directly to authors and very small publishers is something new, I believe, for B&N so they probably panicked when they realized they had to issue 1099-MISC to anyone they'd paid at least ten dollars in royalties for books.