YouTube to soon charge American tax from content creators around the world

Google just made an announcement that can make YouTubers a bit poorer in India and other regions. The search giant in an email to all YouTubers informed that it will be “required to deduct U.S. taxes from payments to creators outside of the US”. American YouTubers will not have to take on an additional tax burden. This additional tax for YouTubers outside the US may start getting deducted as early as June 2021.

“Over the next few weeks, we’ll be asking you to submit your tax info in AdSense to determine the correct amount of taxes to deduct, if any apply. If your tax info isn’t provided by May 31st, 2021, Google may be required to deduct up to 24% of your total earnings worldwide,” said Google in an official communication.

Google’s support page explains that it will regard the revenue from YouTube Partner Program (YPP) monetization settings as royalties under the US tax code, just as it has been doing to US-based creators since November.

Another major gripe of creators was that their own governments were already taxing their earnings, so YouTube’s announcement amounted to double-dipping.

While some of the netizens on Twitter suggested checking which countries have a tax treaty with the US to prevent dual taxation, there were a few who reasoned that the world needs “a non-American website to do the same thing YouTube does.”

Google, YouTube’s parent company, has a long history of structuring its overseas operations to avoid paying taxes – in particular in the EU – itself, and opposing taxes countries such as Russia and India has tried to level on the Silicon Valley giant, the third-biggest tech company in the world.