W-8BEN for Stripe — individuals. A firm files W-8BEN-E

Stripe and similar payment processors collect a tax form before they pay someone outside the United States. An individual files Form W-8BEN. A foreign organization files Form W-8BEN-E. W-8BEN is not the form for a firm.

Work you do from outside the United States is not US-source income, so there is no US tax to withhold from it. Without a valid form the payer may hold your payment until it can document you as foreign.

It confirms you are a foreign individual. A treaty claim in Part II matters only for US-source royalties.

Stripe payouts for subscriptions, software, or digital products are usually treated as business income—often services or sales of digital goods—not US wages.

Stripe itself does not withhold US tax from your payouts. Services you perform outside the US and sales of goods are not US-source, so there is no treaty article to claim. A royalties article matters only when a US customer licenses your software or content for use in the US.

Daniel Foster built and runs a time-tracking app for freelancers from his home office in Southampton, billing customers worldwide—including many in the US—through Stripe subscriptions.

Daniel's own Stripe account never asked for a US form. The request came when a US app marketplace started paying him through Stripe Connect: it collected a W-8BEN in Stripe-hosted onboarding so it wouldn't issue him a 1099. Subscriptions for an app he builds and runs in Southampton aren't US-source, so Part II stayed blank.

Subscription revenue from US customers must be reported to HMRC regardless of US withholding, normally as self-employment income through Self Assessment.

If your subscription revenue becomes a significant income stream, check your VAT registration threshold and whether digital-services VAT rules apply to your non-UK customers before it scales further—rules and thresholds change, so confirm current figures with an accountant.