From: "Thompson-Young, Alexia A" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 14:58:07 +0000

Hi database invoice payers,

For those of you working in United States libraries, how are you
working with the IRS’ NRA (nonresident alien) withholding tax?

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Income-Subject-to-NRA-Withholding

We had an initial meeting with our university’s tax experts, and they
say we need to start accounting for this tax.  While I expect we will
have a bunch more meetings to discuss particulars, it looks like this
tax will come into play with foreign publishers/vendors that store
electronic content on servers located in the United States that we do
not have archival rights to, like databases.  While googling around, I
did find this page from the University of Richmond that supported this
claim (see under Software Royalties at the bottom),
http://controller.richmond.edu/payroll/international/royalties/.

For transactions that meet a NRA withholding tax criteria:

1.       Have you determined that this tax does not apply to licensing
electronic content for libraries?  What are your reasons?

2.       If this tax does apply, do you have any policies around it?

Any info is welcome.

Much obliged!
Lexie

Alexia Thompson-Young
[log in to unmask]

Licensing Coordinator
University of Texas Libraries
512-495-4251