selling through itunes when non-US citizen - red tape extravaganza

[somebaudy]

I'm not an US citizen (I have no US tax identification of any kind at the present time) and yet I'd like to put my ebooks for sale on iBookstore.

for that, according to this page https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/wo/0.0.0.9.7.3.1.1 I need a US Tax ID.

Has anybody gone through the same red tape extravaganza ? If my informations are correct, I need to provide some certified ID card or passport, a W7 form in order to obtain an ITIN.

Can someone confirm that this is the right path to publish on IBookstore ? As a non-US, non-incorporated entity is this the right path and the EIN route is not the correct one ?

Thanks in advance !

[JoeD]

Skip the ITIN, whilst some have managed to get them in a short space of time, there's costs involved in notarising documents and potentially months of delays.

EIN can be obtained with a phone call in most cases and provided over the phone.

See http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/...=97860,00.html for how to get an EIN

* Disclaimer 1: None of the above is legal advice since I'm not a lawyer or accountant and don't even play one on tv, so don't sue me if it's wrong

* Disclaimer 2: I don't think you really need either as apple classifies sales as commission based as opposed to royalties, so those are not subject to the 30% tax withholding. I think people have just entered 00000000 into that box, but see disclaimer 1 This info may be incorrect for books though, Apple may deal with those sales differently to apps. See
this post

[somebaudy]

That post looked very useful but it's from 2008 : here is the error message I got with "000000000" (I even tried "111111111")

A publisher with this U.S. Tax ID has already applied to distribute content on iBookstore. To manage your iBookstore content, log in to iTunes Connect with your existing account. Or try again with a different iTunes Store account.

[JoeD]

Might be worth giving Apple an email then to see what the current situation is and whether they now require a valid EIN or ITIN and if not, what to enter. Although obtaining an EIN should be quick enough it may be simpler/quicker to just do that.

[Apache]

You should be able to get an EIN online.
Apache

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by Apache

You should be able to get an EIN online.
Apache

afaik that's only available as a service for US residents, unless the IRS have updated their site since I last looked into it, which was some time back.

[somebaudy]

The online application for an EIN requires either a social security number or an ITIN. Now let's apostille that photocopy of my ID card...

[Valkrider]

Put your books on Smashwords and they will automatically appear on the iTunes store. Well that is my experience anyway and you then don't have to worry about the Apple red tape.

[somebaudy]

Thanks for the advice. How long does it usually take for smashwords to put a book on Itunes/iBookstore ?