What is the YouTube Tax?
Google is obligated under Chapter 3 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code to withhold tax from YouTube earnings generated from viewers in the United States.
Creators in the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) are required to provide their tax info through AdSense to facilitate this process.
The percentage of tax withheld from the earnings are determined by a withholding rate (WHT) set by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which ranges between 0-30% depending on the country of residence of the creator.
Countries with a tax treaty with the U.S. are however eligible for a reduced WHT rate.
The WHT rates for all countries eligible for the YPP are detailed below.
Countries with Tax Treaties and their Withholding Tax Rates
Some countries have tax treaties with the United States that either reduce the tax burden or completely eliminate double taxation.
YouTube creators that are residents of these countries can claim tax treaty benefits to reduce the tax withheld from their earnings.
This is available on the AdSense tax tool which will identify details of the treaty when filling the tax form.
WHT rates for countries with a tax treaty range from 0% to 15%. For creators that are residents of countries with a rate of 0%, no tax will be withheld from their earnings provided they have submitted their tax info accurately.
It’s essential that valid tax info is provided for these reduced rates to apply. If no tax info is submitted, Google will use a maximum withholding tax rate of 24% on the total earnings and not just those from U.S. viewers.
The tax treaty rates for countries eligible for the YPP are as follows.
| Country | Tax Rate |
|---|---|
| Australia | 5% |
| Austria | 0% |
| Azerbaijan | 0% |
| Bangladesh | 10% |
| Belarus | 0% |
| Belgium | 0% |
| Bulgaria | 5% |
| Canada | 0% |
| Czech Republic | 0% |
| Denmark | 0% |
| Egypt | 15% |
| Estonia | 10% |
| Finland | 0% |
| France | 0% |
| Georgia | 0% |
| Germany | 0% |
| Greece | 0% |
| Hungary | 0% |
| Iceland | 0% |
| India | 15% |
| Indonesia | 10% |
| Ireland | 0% |
| Israel | 10% |
| Italy | 0% |
| Jamaica | 10% |
| Japan | 0% |
| Kazakhstan | 10% |
| Latvia | 10% |
| Lithuania | 10% |
| Luxembourg | 0% |
| Malta | 10% |
| Mexico | 10% |
| Morocco | 10% |
| Netherlands | 0% |
| New Zealand | 5% |
| Norway | 0% |
| Pakistan | 0% |
| Philippines | 15% |
| Poland | 10% |
| Portugal | 10% |
| Romania | 10% |
| Russia | 0% |
| Slovakia | 0% |
| Slovenia | 0% |
| South Africa | 0% |
| South Korea | 10% |
| Spain | 0% |
| Sri Lanka | 10% |
| Sweden | 0% |
| Switzerland | 0% |
| Thailand | 5% |
| Tunisia | 15% |
| Turkey | 10% |
| Ukraine | 10% |
| United Kingdom | 0% |
| Venezuela | 10% |
Countries without a Tax Treaty and their Withholding Tax Rates
The tax rate for countries without a tax treaty is 30%. The bulk of countries eligible for the YPP fall in this category.
Content creators that are residents of these countries are required to submit their tax info to ensure this rate is used.
Otherwise, if no tax info is submitted, Google will use a maximum WHT rate of 24% on their total earnings and not just that earned from U.S. viewers.
The list of countries in this category are as follows:
| Algeria | Argentina |
| Aruba | Bahrain |
| Bermuda | Bolivia |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | Brazil |
| Cayman Islands | Chile |
| Colombia | Costa Rica |
| Croatia | Dominican Republic |
| Ecuador | El Salvador |
| French Guiana | French Polynesia |
| Ghana | Guatemala |
| Guadeloupe | Honduras |
| Hong Kong | Iraq |
| Jordan | Kenya |
| Kuwait | Lebanon |
| Libya | Liechtenstein |
| Macedonia | Malaysia |
| Martinique | Mayotte |
| Montenegro | Nepal |
| Nicaragua | Nigeria |
| Oman | Panama |
| Papua New Guinea | Paraguay |
| Peru | Qatar |
| Reunion | Senegal |
| Serbia | Singapore |
| Saudi Arabia | Taiwan |
| Tanzania | Tunisia |
| Turks and Caicos Islands | Uganda |
| United Arab Emirates | Uruguay |
| Vietnam | Yemen |
| Zimbabwe |
