Google Seeks Taxes From YouTube Creators Outside US

The new legislation only extends to creators based outside of the US, and there will be no such deductions for those who live in the US.

(Representative Image/Getty)

If you are a creator on YouTube, then there's some bad news for you as the platform is likely to start deducting taxes from creators outside of the US, including India, beginning June 2021.

"If you're a monetizing creator outside of the US, like India, important tax changes are coming later this year that may affect your YPP earnings," said YTCreators India in a tweet.

The tax will be deducted from the earnings creators make from the US viewers. The new legislation only extends to creators based outside of the US, and there will be no such deductions for those who live in the US.

The Google-owned company has asked the creators to submit their tax information in AdSense "to determine the correct amount of taxes to deduct."

Citing reasons for the new tax provisions, YouTube said its parent company Google has the responsibility under Chapter 3 of the US Internal Revenue Code to collect tax information, withhold taxes, and report to the Internal Revenue Service when a creator earned royalty revenue from viewers in the US.

"Google is required to collect tax info from creators in the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). If any tax deductions apply, Google will withhold taxes on YouTube earnings from viewers in the US from ad views, YouTube Premium, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Channel Memberships," the company said.

Youtube has given a deadline of May 31 to creators to upload their tax information to AdSense. Failure to do so could result in a deduction of up to 24% of total earnings worldwide.


The exact percentage will be determined by whether the creator's country has a tax treaty with the US, which means that tax deductions for creators will differ across countries.

As far as India is concerned, the withholding limit is set at 15% of the overall earnings a creator receives from viewers in the US.

Google AdSense allows you to view specific Google ads on your result pages more quickly and easily.

YouTube's decision has faced criticism from Indian creators, especially the small ones, who don't have enough subscribers to draw native ad sponsors.

There are over 1700 YouTube channels in India with over a million subscribers.