So, I recently got a payout and noticed that after several years, I had taxes withheld. I'm a Canadian who lives in Canada, and I talked to customer service.
They informed me that the W8ben form needs to be filled out every 3 years, and that likely mine expired. Sure enough, the timeline worked out, so I refilled out the form. Digitally signed it, and pressed save. The dates on the payout form read "Dec. 19, 2019" now (this has been going on for over 2 weeks, so that's the most recent date I re-filled out the form) , so I'm well within the 3 years, made a note for myself to redo this again so we didn't have more withholdings.
Well, the next payment comes through, and again, there are withholdings. I call customer service again, and they said it's a technical issue with my account.and it shouldn't be withholding. They said they'd work on it.
It's been 2 weeks and I've now lost over 300 dollars to the withholdings, and with Xmas coming tomorrow, and my check ins, I'll lose another $600 to withholdings.
They are doing NOTHING at Airbnb to help. I've spoken with 10 people, in various departments, and the most recent tool I spoke with just gave me this cut and paste response: "It is confirmed that Canada is a Tax Treaty country. However, for W- 8BEN filers, you may be subjected to a withholding for a few reasons in lieu of this agreement. It is important to note that some times in these situations a small error may be present within the tax form. It is encouraged that you look over the information and update any errors, if this issue continues I will be gladly awaiting to assist in the sensitive issue."
This is AFTER two weeks of already dealing with them.
So I'm asking the community for help on a couple issues:
1) Has anyone had this issue and how did you fix it?
2) Has anyone from Canada recouped the money sent to the IRS? How do I start that process?
Any help on these would be appreciated.
