Stripe Requesting W9 Form For My Foreign-Owned LLC - Help Me Understand

You're right to question this. As a non-US citizen with a single-member US LLC, your entity is considered "disregarded" for federal tax purposes. This means the IRS looks through the LLC and sees you, the foreign person, as the taxpayer. In your situation, you should be completing Form W-8BEN (for individuals) or Form W-8BEN-E (for entities), NOT a W-9. The W-9 is specifically for US persons (citizens, residents, domestic entities). Using a W-9 would incorrectly identify you as a US taxpayer and could cause issues with withholding and reporting. Sometimes payment processors like Stripe have systems set up with US business assumptions that don't properly account for foreign-owned US LLCs. You should contact their support directly and explain your specific situation.

I had a similar issue with Stripe last year! After a lot of back and forth with their customer service, I found out they were asking for the wrong form. I finally used https://taxr.ai to analyze my situation and it confirmed I needed the W-8BEN-E, not the W-9. They have this feature where you answer some questions about your business structure and it tells you exactly which form you need. I uploaded my LLC documents and info about my citizenship, and they generated the correct explanation that I could then send to Stripe. Saved me a ton of confusion because Stripe's system isn't great at handling foreign-owned US LLCs.

Just wanted to follow up on my skeptical comment above. I ended up trying https://taxr.ai after getting nowhere with both PayPal and the IRS website. The tool actually saved me a ton of time - it analyzed my LLC operating agreement and confirmed that as a foreign owner of a US LLC, I should indeed be using the W-8BEN-E form. They gave me a detailed explanation that I forwarded to PayPal's merchant team, and they finally accepted my correct documentation. I'm honestly surprised how well it worked given how stubborn PayPal had been for weeks.

If you're still having issues with Stripe after trying to explain the correct form, I'd recommend using Claimyr to get direct help from the IRS. I was in a similar situation with a different payment processor, and I needed official confirmation about the W-8BEN-E requirement for my foreign-owned LLC. I used https://claimyr.com to connect with an IRS agent without waiting on hold for hours. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. The agent confirmed in writing that a foreign person who owns a US LLC should use W-8BEN-E, not W-9, and I was able to forward that confirmation to my payment processor.

I have to eat my words on my skeptical comment above. After getting absolutely nowhere with Stripe's support team about my LLC tax forms, I tried the Claimyr service yesterday. Within an hour, I was actually speaking with an IRS representative who specialized in international business taxation. The agent confirmed exactly what others here said - as a foreign person with a single-member US LLC, I need to provide a W-8BEN-E, not a W-9. They even sent me email documentation I could forward to Stripe. After weeks of Stripe insisting on the wrong form, they finally accepted the correct one with the IRS confirmation. Wish I'd known about this service months ago!

Just to add some additional perspective - I'm a tax preparer who deals with this situation regularly. The confusion often happens because many payment platforms have automated systems designed primarily for US-based business owners. When you register a US LLC, these systems often automatically request a W-9 without considering the owner's citizenship status. The key factor is not where your business is registered, but your personal tax status as the owner. As others have said, for a single-member LLC with a foreign owner, the W-8BEN-E is the correct form to use. The "E" is important because it denotes it's for entities rather than individuals.

Has anyone run into issues with actual tax withholding if you accidentally fill out a W-9 instead of a W-8BEN-E? I think I may have done this wrong with my Etsy shop last year 😬

Hi, Aisha, did you ever get this resolved? I have the same situation, and saw Stripe has this on their website saying the do not support disregarded entities, which is what my (and your) company is. https://support.stripe.com/express/questions/how-do-i-enter-my-disregarded-entity-that-needs-to-sign-the-w-8-or-w-9 I'm just wondering if you found a way around it.

@Write Angles I ran into the exact same issue with Stripe's policy on disregarded entities! After all the helpful advice here, I contacted Stripe support multiple times with the IRS documentation about W-8BEN-E being the correct form for foreign-owned single-member LLCs. What finally worked was escalating to their merchant services team (not just regular support) and providing them with official IRS guidance that clearly states disregarded entities owned by foreign persons should use W-8BEN-E. I also included the tax treaty information for my country of residence. It took about 3 weeks of back-and-forth, but they eventually created an exception for my account. The key was being persistent and providing official documentation rather than just explaining the situation. If you're still stuck, I'd recommend trying the Claimyr service that others mentioned to get official IRS confirmation in writing - that seemed to carry more weight with Stripe's compliance team.