I make a small amount of money through Google AdSense, just about enough to pay for the server that runs this site if you were wondering. I honestly don’t know if it’s worth it for the amount of hassle it is but I enjoy running a website so I keep at it.
Recently, however, when I logged in to check my payments I was greeted with the most terrifying looking bright red alert banner. Apparently my W-8BEN was about to expire and I now needed to submit proof of UK residency so Google Ireland could make payments. Presumably this is part of Brexit as it wasn’t required in the past.
Proof of UK Tax Residency for Google Ireland
The W-8BEN is easy in AdSense, especially if you’ve filled one in before, you basically just declare nothing has changed and you’re good to go. The UK tax residency is a bit tougher. Google (or more likely the Irish government) require one of three documents to prove you are a UK citizen:
- Unexpired national ID card issued by government with local address that shows you are a tax resident of the issuing country
- Taxpayer ID card
- Tax residency certificate
The UK doesn’t really have a taxpayer ID card, we have National Insurance cards but they don’t have any address details (it doesn’t say it needs address details, but it does if it’s going to be accepted). We also don’t have a national ID card. Most people will use their driving license but if you submit that it won’t be accepted. That leaves the only option being a tax residency certificate which I’m sure left you wondering what that is.
How to Get a Tax Residency Certificate from HMRC
HMRC have a page describing the certificate and roughly how to apply for it here. As with all the HMRC forms, though, they tend to expect you to be a lawyer or accountant if you are filling them in. Under the How to Apply section click the online service link and enter your Government Gateway ID. If you don’t have an HMRC login already you’ll need to apply for that first and then come back here. I seem to recall it was a fairly long-winded process but it was a few years ago that I got mine.
Now it gets tricky. Some of the questions are quite straight forward but others aren’t obvious. I believe the points below are in the same order as the questions:
- Foreign Income from outside UK? Yes
- Requesting certificate in advance? No
- Why are you requesting? Fees or self employment income
- Name of Payer? Google Ireland Limited
- Amount? Use last years payment from AdSense, it doesn’t show up on the certificate.
- Payer’s address in UK? No
- International Address? Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
- Do you need a certificate for a specific period? No. This is important, the certificate needs to show the current year or Google will reject it.
- Country’s tax office needs the certificate? Ireland
- Article of Double Taxation? 4
- Are you the beneficial owner of foreign income?: Yes
- Do the subject to tax provisions apply to this foreign income? Yes
The certificate will take about a month to arrive from HMRC, it’s literally a signed note confirming your UK Fiscal Residence. Take a good clear photograph of just the certificate (not the cover letter), you must be able to easily read the text. Don’t crop, edit, enhance, shrink or do anything else to the photo.
Log back into AdSense and navigate to Payments > Payments Info. You’ll likely still have a banner complaining about Irish tax information. Click it and start filling in the form. If you have any failed attempts at submitting information make sure you delete those before submitting the current attempt.
In the Ireland Tax Residency section (which appears when you select a type of Individual, I think) upload the photograph of your certificate. The expiry date setting doesn’t seem to matter. I set it to one year beyond the date shown on the letter but once accepted Google lists it as never expiring.
Submit the form. If it’s going to be accepted it will be accepted immediately. There’s no way a human reviewed the certificate so I guess it’s machine read which is why it’s important to submit a good clear photograph.
That’s it, possibly the most hardcore process I’ve ever gone through for barely enough money to buy me a cup of coffee once a month.