# Manage W-9 Tax Compliance for Participants in Advocate
W-9 Compliance is an optional feature in Advocate that helps your brand and your participants remain compliant with US tax law. It tracks which participants have submitted a W-9 form and ensures that rewards exceeding $2,000 USD in a calendar year are properly handled.
To read more about W-9 Advocate compliance visit [W-9 Compliance Explained for Advocate](/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/advocate-program/advocate-program-settings/w-9-compliance-explained-for-advocate.md).
This article explains how to view, update, and bulk-manage W-9 tax compliance statuses for your participants.
#### How to check a participant’s W-9 tax compliance status
Follow this process to check whether a W-9 form was marked as collected for a specific participant.
1. From the left navigation menu, go to  **\[Engage] → Participants**.
2. Search for and select the name of the participant.
3. On the participant’s profile, select the **Payouts and Tax** tab.
4. Within this tab, you’ll see:
* The participant’s W-9 form status (Collected / Not Collected).
* A breakdown of rewards earned per calendar year.
{% hint style="success" %}
**Note**: If you want to see the W-9 status for multiple participants at once, you can run a program report using the report type US W-9 Tax Report.
{% endhint %}
#### Update an individual participant's W-9 status
{% hint style="success" %}
This feature is on accessible to specific impact.com editions or add-ons. [Contact us](https://app.impact.com/support/portal.ihtml?createTicket=true) to upgrade your account and get access.
{% endhint %}
Mark a W-9 form as collected
Select **Mark as collected** when a participant submits their W-9. Doing so removes the $2,000 USD reward limit and releases any pending rewards.
1. From the left navigation menu, select  **\[Engage] → Participants**.
2. Search for and select the **name** of the participant whose tax compliance status you want to modify.
3. On the participant's profile, select the **Payouts and Tax** tab.
4. Select **Mark as collected**.
5. Select **Confirm**.
Mark a W-9 form as not collected
By default, participants are assumed not to have provided a W-9 form. If you previously marked a W-9 form as collected and want to change the status, use this option to revert the status manually.
{% hint style="info" %}
**Note**: Changing a status to *Not Collected* does not retroactively place rewards into pending.
{% endhint %}
1. From the left navigation menu, select  **\[Engage] → Participants**.
2. Search for and select the **name** of the participant whose tax compliance status you want to modify.
3. On the participant's profile, select the **Payouts and Tax** tab.
4. Select **Mark as not collected**.
5. Select **Confirm**.
#### Bulk update W-9 statuses
{% hint style="success" %}
This feature is on accessible to specific impact.com editions or add-ons. [Contact us](https://app.impact.com/support/portal.ihtml?createTicket=true) to upgrade your account and get access.
{% endhint %}
You can use a bulk user import to mark W-9 forms as *Collected* for multiple participants at once. This action:
* Exempts participants from the $2,000 USD annual reward limit for current and future tax years.
* Automatically releases any rewards that were placed in a pending state due to a missing W-9.
{% hint style="warning" %}
**Warning:** The bulk import option cannot be used to mark W-9s as **Not Collected**—that must be done individually via the participant profile.
{% endhint %}
1. Download the [.csv sample file](https://res.cloudinary.com/product-enablement/raw/upload/v1750350546/CSVs/User_data_-_W9_-_User_data_-_W9.csv) or use the following .csv data to create a sample file:
```programlisting
accountId,id,firstName,lastName,email,referable,referralCode,paymentProviderId,locale,referredBy.code,referredBy.isConverted,imageUrl,customFields.province,customFields.postal
5ac26c53ead2245a935343d2,5ac26c53ead2245a935343d3,Sara,Reyes,j9lqxclgm4qdu84cphyh@example.com,,B0DK58Z3HEF03NJ14TVB,,ar_QA,6PKBDHB79W434XG788MM,false,,QC,P1X 4N3
5ac26c53ead2245a935343d4,5ac26c53ead2245a935343d5,Dominic,Blake,sxh96ct7caztbbqjsdyb@example.com,,E1THJUBSHVGANSC9OCEM,,,4AXZAV7FSA9S4FZKTCGT,true,,MB,S9C 4S9
5ac26c53ead2245a935343d6,5ac26c53ead2245a935343d7,Dora,Dunn,u5071o1fw6d0uhj12r8f@example.com,,NE8ZZSJNECOLFQ76TWBX,,,7NSJJWLWNYA3SS8YPEGZ,false,,AB,B4R 4V8
5ac26c53ead2245a935343d8,5ac26c53ead2245a935343d9,Francis,Walters,4i8jalsp0q5n8z2bui6g@example.com,,KEHV3PG3P6CWQ4VBT03Y,,th,3LBNN1M0UGNN6EGONUFW,false,,SK,J0X 4A8
```
2. For each participant whose W-9 you’ve collected:
* Add a column labeled: `dateUSTaxFormSubitted`.
* Enter the Unix timestamp (epoch time) representing the date the W-9 was received.
* Use an online converter to generate this from a standard date (e.g., epochconverter.com).
3. **Save** the file.
4. Follow the [bulk import instructions](/brand/what-would-you-like-to-learn-about/advocate-program/manage-advocate-participants/import-advocate-participants-in-bulk.md) to upload your file.
---
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