Email sent.

Thank you for your very fast reply via email.

Yes i agree with you, ICQ of late, is not best IM software.

I'm outside the U.S, and I'm going to let them close my 10 year year old account and keep the couple hundred bucks a year I make off them - mainly because I don't have a clue what my Mexican rep is asking me to do. Enjoy the happy meals you fucking thieves!

Fuck that shit.

I only wish "Reuben" spoke better English instead of the nonesense, garbled crap emails he sends me.

1) Most "Foreign" webmasters do not understand pig-English. A Reuben is a sandwich. Sandwiches don't speak English. Either does your Reuben.
2) Get an actual English speaking rep to contact your "north of Mexico" affiliates.
3) Pay me for all sales up until June 15, 2012 (HAHAHAROFL!)
4) I will continue to claim the average income I've earned from you over the past decade on my taxes whether you pay me or not.
5) Don't ever have a Spanish native contact your foriegn webmasters. WTF? Nobody speaks English - or even Engrish - at Cams/Aff/BOFT?

Another plan: Steal my money (because that's what desperate, dying businesses do) and buy yourself a Happy Meal. Or a six pack. Enjoy. Fuck off. Learn English. Continue to fail.

I wonder if Mexican rep's spelling is better than "foriegn" webmasters' .
:2 cents:

I see FFN has still not given a straight response on who needs to fill out the form. They are neither confirming nor denying that they lost my paperwork, even though they insisted on a copy of my drivers license and Social Security card, which I am not thrilled to have floating around. Here is what they sent me today:

"Dear Amelia,

Unfortunately, we are required to have this w-9 tax form on file for every affiliate we have updated annually per the ?IRS?. This is true because our company has went public and we are paying you US income. Please update the form as per the prior email request and email back to us so we can update your account as soon as possible. Thank you so much! "

Anyone know the link to the page on the IRS web site where it says all public companies need to get a new W-9 every year?

Anyone who is not me get an accurate straight answer out of FFN on this latest debacle?

Anyone get what FFN is trying to do here?

They sent me an email saying that while they had gotten my form, I had not included my tax id number. I thought it was possible that I missed it, so I went to look at the attachment.

It was clearly typed right on the form, so I sent it right back to them.

I am sorry to hear you feel this way about this request. I have included your affiliate manager so that you two can discuss further details. This is just a requirement that our company has to follow because we went public recently. It has been placed upon us by the IRS for all of our affiliate accounts that we pay out US funds too. I understand if you are uncomfortable doing so, just keep in mind that on 6/18 your account will be placed on hold. Thank you for your quick reply and Good day!

fax or email us at 408-745-5678 or [email protected]

http://www.atsu.edu/employeeforms/pdfs/W-8_forms.pdf

Sincerely,
Felicia Riger
Various, Inc.
a FriendFinder Networks Inc. company
220 Humboldt Court
Sunnyvale, Ca 94089

I emailed back this:

If you read this thread: https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1070090 you will see that other public listed companies such as google/amazon do not require this information.

Here is google stating this on their tax information page:

https://www.google.com/adsense/taxinfo

Non U.S. Business (No U.S. Activities )

United States (U.S.) Activities involve having employees or owning equipment in the U.S. that are involved in any way with revenue earned through the AdSense program. This includes, but is not limited to, owning a web server or owning a hosting service in the U.S., or having employees in the U.S. who are involved in either:

setting up a web server, hosting service, or website
developing content for your website
marketing to create a user base for your site
telephone support for your site
buying products for your site
maintaining your site
Generally, utilizing an unrelated third-party U.S. web hosting service to host your web pages, renting web servers that are located in the U.S. from an unrelated third party, or having your payment sent to a U.S. Post Office Box or mail forwarding address, do not of themselves constitute U.S. Activities.

If you do not have U.S. Activities, please visit the Tax Information page under your My Account tab where you will agree to a statement to that effect. No tax forms are required in this instance.

----

So why is AFF requesting this information? I have no U.S. Activities. I am pretty sure the multi billion dollar company google would not get this wrong, they can hire the very best lawyers.

So please look into this again, otherwise you will be losing a loyal affiliate dating back to 2003.

Best regards

To be more exact: Those companies do require that information, but they do understand what the forms are for. W9 is for US entities, W8ben is for foreign entities with US Activities. There's no standard form for foreign entities that have no US Activities. In the case of a foreign affiliate that has no US Activities, the affiliate program can collect that information in another way. Google allows those affiliates/publishers to click an "i certify" button. Shareasale requires those affiliates to sign and scan a statement they drafted. etc.

You provided Google's link here for why non-US webmasters do not have to provide info, without providing any documentation for your own bizarre assertions.

Please post a link to where on the IRS site it mentions the regulation which says that public companies have to get a new W-9 every year.

Please advise what FFN has done with my previously supplied sensitive personal data. Did FFN lose their copy of my tax paperwork? Did FFN lose their copy of my drivers license? Did FFN lose their copy of my Social Security card?

Please explain why yesterday you bizarrely started asking me for a W-8. If your answer contains personal data, please explain this via email as previously requested.

There is no reason FFN has to go around and around on this.

Edit, someone already answered question.

50

Still no help on this. Very disappointing to see that FFN feels my traffic is worth regularly aggressively spamming many of my sites for, but treating affiliates with common courtesy seems not to be on the to-do list.

Even though I am a Non-US affiliate with no US activities they still needed my Canadian Tax ID or they said my account would be suspended.

Anyone been paid since submitting the form?