YouTube content creators watch out: Google will cut 24% tax from June 2021

Mumbai: Google has made a new announcement that will come as bad news for YouTube content creators in India and other parts of the world. Creators who are not based in the US will be subject to US tax withholding or deductions from their monthly earnings. The new policy does not affect US-based creators. The additional tax for non-US-based creators may start coming into effect from June 2021.

Further, Google will deduct taxes on YouTube earnings from viewers in the US on not just ad views, but this will include YouTube Premium, Super Chat, Super Stickers and channel memberships, according to a support page.

Google’s post on the support forum says that “all monetizing creators on YouTube, regardless of their location in the world, are required to provide tax info. Please submit your tax info as soon as possible. If your tax info isn’t provided by May 31, 2021, Google may be required to deduct up to 24% of your total earnings worldwide.”

Where will the tax apply?

How much tax will be deducted from a YouTube content creator’s earnings will depend upon a few factors. For creators outside of the US, submitting your tax info can get you a withholding rate of 0-30% on earnings that you make from US-based viewers. So if you are a creator with a large segment of your audience or viewers based in the US, be prepared for some revenue cuts from YouTube.

According to the support page,”If you submit US tax info, withholding rates are between 0 percent and 30 percent on earnings that you generate from viewers in the US and depend on whether your country has a tax treaty relationship with the United States.”

Creators based in the US will not be subject to tax withholding if the creators have provided valid tax information. If no US tax information is provided, Google may deduct as per the maximum tax rate, which again will depend on the creator’s AdSense account type and country.

How withholdings will affect accounts if no US tax info is provided

If your creator account classifies as a Business Account, the default withholding rate will be 30% of the US-viewer earnings.

If your creator account classifies as an Individual Account, backup withholding will apply, and you will pay 24% of the total earnings worldwide.

Google has also mentioned in its official post that “these withholding rates will be adjusted in the next payment cycle once valid US tax info is provided in AdSense.”