as a self employed from australia..does google still require my australian tax number? I'm not comfortable giving this number out,considering the ato says to keep the number confidential. The only times we're required in australia to give it out is to employers and banks when setting up bank accounts. If this number was given out,and my bank details and name and address were given my identity would be stolen easily...so far i havent submitted any forms to google..
(the following applies to the US only) You aren't reading that right. The withholding is about whether a court or the IRS has ordered a percentage of your income withheld. In the US money from AdSense (or any affiliate program, or ebook sales, or selling ads directly) is treated as income (just like income from a job, except that as you are self-employed you have to pay the full social security tax not just the employee part). That is why Google requires US AdSense publishers to provide tax information. By law Google is required to send a 1099-MISC tax form to both the IRS and the publisher when the publisher earns more than $600 in a year. If you don't report Google Adsense income on your tax return and you earned over $600 the IRS will know and they will (at minimum) send you a letter telling you what you owe (and if it is a larger amount you will get audited and they will find any other online marketing income you didn't declare, and they will assess in interest and penalties on top of what you owe). Be smart about it, if you are successful you have to declare your income... but that also opens up a bunch of legal tax deductions you can consider taking: Hosting costs Home office costs Cell phone (if you use a separate line for work) Advertising costs Domain registration Review products? deduct the cost of those too (and there's lots more) Last year wasn't my best year but I earned about $250k gross from my web sites and adwords ($130k net), I paid estimated taxes quarterly and after deducting costs, mortgage interest, etc, I got a nice tax refund. If you are earning money online you are running a business, and that is how the IRS treats it. If you are smart enough to make good money online then you should be smart enough to understand the relevant parts of the US tax code. (if you aren't earning much then you may not have to pay any tax, but you still need to file a tax return... if you are successful you can either do your taxes yourself or pay a professional to do it for (and the H&R franchise guy at Walmart probably wont be a good choice)).
Yes, if you are in the US, you'll get a 1099 form at year-end from Google reporting your earnings for the year, a copy of which is sent to the IRS. You will report this income from the 1099 on your tax return for the year -- and pay tax on it.