Tax & Payout Setup for Participants
This article shows the full experience your participants have when they set up tax and payout details within your Advocate microsites or verified access widgets.
Participants never need to create a separate impact.com login. All screens appear within a microsite or verified access widget that the participant accesses, but impact.com securely powers the tax and payout collection behind the scenes.
Overview of the process
Participants complete their tax and payout setup in 4 main steps:
Profile & payout currency – Basic contact details and preferred payout currency
Indirect tax (VAT / GST / HST) – Whether they are registered for indirect tax
Electronic tax form – Country‑appropriate IRS form (e.g., W‑9, W‑8BEN)
Payout method – Where or how they’d like to receive their funds (E.g., bank account)
Once finished, participants are ready to receive rewards through your program.
Add profile details & payout currency
Once a participant has navigated to the Tax & Payout settings page within the verified access widget or microsite, they’re asked to confirm a few basics:
Name – First and last name
Email – Pulled from their account (usually cannot be edited here)
Country/Region – Used to determine applicable tax rules
Phone number – With a country/region code and local number
Address – Street, city, state / province / region, postal code
Preferred payout currency – A dropdown of available currency options, such as:
AUD – Australian Dollar
CAD – Canadian Dollar
EUR – Euro
GBP – British Pound
USD – U.S. Dollar
Next:
The participant selects a preferred payout currency. This is the currency in which they’d like to receive payouts (where supported).
Participants then review and confirm that they have read the terms and conditions and agree to share their information. This allows impact.com to securely process their tax and banking information on your behalf.
Select Continue.
Note: If they don’t consent, they can’t continue with the setup.
Registered vs not registered for indirect tax
Note: If your reward exceeds the $2,000 tax threshold, you will be required to submit the following in order to receive your reward.
This briefly explains that some countries charge indirect taxes (like VAT, GST, or HST) on services and that businesses may need to register and collect these taxes.
Participants choose one of two options:
Not registered for indirect tax For individuals or small businesses that have never registered for VAT/GST/HST with their tax authority.
Registered for indirect tax For businesses that have an existing indirect tax registration.
If a participant selects Registered for indirect tax, they’re asked to provide:
Country or region of registration
[If applicable] Province / state / region
Changes to indirect tax and personal information may later require help from support, so it’s important participants enter this information correctly.
Select Continue to move on.
Complete the electronic tax form
Note: In Step 3, participants complete an electronic tax form only if and when their reward exceeds the $2,000 threshold.
Choose the tax form type
First, participants see a list of supported forms, such as:
W‑9 – For U.S. individuals and entities
W‑8BEN – For non‑U.S. individuals
W‑8BEN‑E – For non‑U.S. entities
W‑8ECI – For non‑U.S. persons with U.S.‑effectively‑connected income
W‑8EXP – For certain non‑U.S. governments and tax‑exempt organizations
W‑8IMY – For non‑U.S. intermediaries or flow‑through entities
Learn more about the various tax options.
Select Continue after selecting the relevant tax form option.
Note: The available forms and labels may vary depending on the participant’s country and your configuration.
Confirm account holder details
Participants enter or confirm their account holder details for tax purposes, for example:
Are they completing the form as an individual or an entity (business)?
Their legal name (and, where relevant, business/trading name)
Tax identification details (such as a U.S. SSN, ITIN, or EIN, or a foreign tax ID)
Permanent residence address
Contact details
Before continuing, they need to select 
[checkbox] confirming the information is accurate.
Accept electronic tax terms and get a confirmation code
Participants are shown terms that explain how the electronic tax documents work. They must:
Review the terms.
Select Accept to continue.
Participants are then issued a temporary electronic signature confirmation code. On this screen, they:
See a one‑time confirmation code (e.g., a short combination of letters and numbers).
Are asked to save this code securely – it will be needed at the end of the process.
Select a security question and enter a security word (case‑sensitive) to help protect their electronic signature.
The participant then selects OK to move on to the detailed form.
Complete the rest of the form
The remaining questions match the IRS (or applicable authority) form they selected. For a W‑9, for example, they may be asked to:
Confirm U.S. tax classification (e.g., individual, corporation, LLC)
Enter Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)
Confirm whether they are subject to backup withholding
Each section populates once enough information has been provided, and the Continue option only becomes available after all required questions are answered.
Review and certify
Finally, participants see a Certification screen summarizing their tax details and the official certification text.
They confirm by:
Reading through the certification language
Checking required boxes to indicate:
The information is true and correct
Their TIN is correct (or they’re in the process of obtaining one)
Their status (for example, whether they are subject to backup withholding)
Confirming they’ve reviewed the form details
Once everything is certified, they select Continue to move to the last step.
After selecting continue, you'll be requested to confirm your electronic signature. Select Submit Electronically to complete your tax form submission.
Add payout details
In the final step, participants provide the details needed to receive funds in the currency they chose earlier (where supported). For more information, see Cash Payouts FAQ for Advocates.
Depending on your configuration and region, they may:
Choose a payout method, such as:
Bank transfer
PayPal
Enter the required account details, such as:
Account holder name
Bank name and country
Account number / IBAN
Routing / SWIFT / BIC code
PayPal email or other wallet ID, if applicable
Once they save their payout method and select their payout schedule, setup is complete.
After setup: what to expect
Once a participant has completed these steps:
Their tax status is recorded so rewards can be handled appropriately for their country.
Their payout method is securely stored for future payments.
Many tax fields are locked down to protect compliance; if something critical changes (like their tax country or indirect tax status), they may need to contact support to update it.
This information gets reviewed by the impact.com compliance team and can take up to 72 hours to verify.
From this point onwards, rewards you approve can be paid out using the method and currency the participant selected.
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