Disclaimer Regarding Tax Information: Spreadshirt aims to make payments and legal tax compliance as easy as possible for our partners. The following is for informational purposes only. Spreadshirt is unable to give tax or legal advice. If you have questions or concerns about tax filings, please contact a tax professional. Please note: The payment method "bank transfer" is currently only accepted by U.S. banks.
Setting up your payment information as a U.S. citizen is a straightforward process that ensures you're ready to receive earnings smoothly and securely. In the Payment info tab, all partners and designers are required to submit their payment details—either bank or PayPal account information—along with tax documents. It’s important to complete this step by the time you make your first sale, as providing this information is necessary to enable payouts.
For U.S. partners specifically, a W-9 form is required. This applies to both individual creators and companies, as the W-9 provides essential taxpayer information. The partner area guides you through each step, making it simple to set up and verify your payment information to ensure timely and reliable payments.
Who needs to submit W-9 form?
For federal tax purposes, a U.S. person includes, but is not limited to:
- An individual who is a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident alien;
- A partnership, corporation, company, or association created or organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States;
- Any estate (other than a foreign estate); or
- A domestic trust
How to set up your payment data
First off, in the Payment info tab, if you haven’t already, you’ll have the option of setting two-factor authentication, which we suggest setting up to further protect your data.
Then the set-up process begins. First, click on the button “+ Add Payout Method.” A page with your personal data transmitted from the previous tab will show up. Select your account type (individual or registered business) then click “Next” on the bottom right.
You will then be asked to enter either your bank transfer data or Paypal information. At this stage you will need to select one however you can always add another payout method later (although only one can be active).
The next step is providing your tax form, which is mandatory for you receiving your payouts. Start by clicking “Submit a Tax Form,” which will lead you to a page where you are required to select whether you are a US citizen or not.
All US citizens, no matter where they are residing, are to provide a W-9 form, so click “I am a U.S. Person.” For all non-U.S. citizens, there is another form to provide which you can check in the FAQs for non U.S. individual, or non U.S. corporation.
In the next step you will need to fill in your personal data, which can be done automatically with the popup when you click each section.
Once that’s completed, in the next section you need to select your “Federal Tax Classification” from the drop-down menu.
Then, enter your Social Security Number if you choose individual or enter your Employer Identification Number if you operate as a company.
Under “Exemptions,” you have the possibility to enter an “Exempt payee code” or your “FATCA reporting code” – these are optional.
If you are not collecting those codes, you can leave this part blank and continue.
Now, check that all the information is correct, and ensure all boxes on the lefthand side are ticked to proceed and complete your W-9 form. If you are not collecting a FATCA code and omitted that field you can also confirm that with a tick. Then once that’s all done you can click “Complete W-9” on the bottom right and your tax form has been submitted!
After everything has successfully been submitted you will be asked if you accept e-delivery for your end of year tax statement. This statement will be stored in your Partner Area and you will receive an email notification when it’s ready to be downloaded. If you don’t accept e-delivery, you will receive it by post instead.
You can now find your tax form in under the Payment info tab and check its status. Your Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) check will be done; the final confirmation of your tax form may take up to 2 weeks.
If you wish, you can add another payment method by clicking on the blue “+ Add Payout Method” button next to “Payout Methods.” Enter the data for the extra payout method you’d like to add. After entering the data, you can choose between “Add” or “Add and Active.” If you select “Add and Active” that means that this payment method will be your preferred/active one.
