Hello, Premium Creators!

If your game sold enough copies to push you past the $150 mark your payment (provided you properly filled everything out on your PII) should be arriving soon! As of Friday, May 1, 2009 you will also see an additional tab under the My Business section of your Premium Creators Club account called “Payment History” there you can see the record of the payments.

The majority of the first quarter payments for Community Games should be arriving in Premium Creators’ bank accounts. If you are a person in the US then you’ll get one payment with no tax withholding. If you are a non-US creator you will likely receive two payments, one for the known US sales which is subject to the relevant tax withholding and another for the known non-US sales which has no withholding.

 

As part of the payment process you may see additional bank charges. These are unfortunately charges that your banks puts on the payment and Microsoft has no control over. If you feel the payment is incorrect, please first consult your bank about any charges that may be associated with the payment. If you still have questions, feel free to email creators@microsoft.com or visit this forum thread right here and we’ll do our best to answer them!

xxoo
~kathleen sanders
XNA Community Manager

 

Cookiecups:

The majority of the first quarter payments for Community Games should be arriving in Premium Creators’ bank accounts. If you are a person in the US then you’ll get one payment with no tax withholding. If you are a non-US creator you will likely receive two payments, one for the known US sales which is subject to the relevant tax withholding and another for the known non-US sales which has no withholding.

My tax forms got in on time but the IRS was too slow getting my details on the system that the payment team use to check our details, so now I'm having to wait for the next period.

What is the easiest way to check that the PII stuff is all ready to go for the next payment period other than emailing creators@ (who then have to contact the payments team)?

Cheers team, keep up the good work. I believe once the money is in everyones hands, we'll see loads more games on here.

I don't see the tab yet. Am I jumping the gun or is it the case that it's only visible if you've filled in your payment details?

I'm still waiting to sort out tax treaty forms so haven't entered my details.

Will we get information on how much money we've earned from the quarter, even if we don't get paid that quarter?

Yes... we can check the sales data, but I like seeing a confirmed number :)

I don't see the tab in the My Business section.  Does that mean I entered something wrong or is it to early to tell.

TnTGaming:

I don't see the tab in the My Business section.  Does that mean I entered something wrong or is it to early to tell.

I don't have it either, I'm sure it'll appear some time today.

Yes, you'll see a new section later today. It's just Friday morning here in Seattle so we haven't flipped the switch for that section yet... stay tuned...

EdAndersenUK:

My tax forms got in on time but the IRS was too slow getting my details on the system that the payment team use to check our details, so now I'm having to wait for the next period.

What is the easiest way to check that the PII stuff is all ready to go for the next payment period other than emailing creators@ (who then have to contact the payments team)?

Cheers team, keep up the good work. I believe once the money is in everyones hands, we'll see loads more games on here.

We are working to add the status of your PII readiness to the first page of the PII entry section of the site. It should certainly be in before the next quarter ends.

Oscar K:

Firstly, I'd like the thank everyone at Microsoft for all the hard work they have put in regarding the XNA Framework and the Community Games initiative. It truly is ahead of the curve compared to other platform holders, and I can see nothing but good times ahead!

I do however have one question:

Cookiecups:

The majority of the first quarter payments for Community Games should be arriving in Premium Creators’ bank accounts. If you are a person in the US then you’ll get one payment with no tax withholding. If you are a non-US creator you will likely receive two payments, one for the known US sales which is subject to the relevant tax withholding and another for the known non-US sales which has no withholding.

I was unaware that non-US developers would still be withheld tax for any US-based sales. As a foreign national I had assumed that I had to pay tax in my relevant country on the entire amount.

However, does the US not have minimum tax-free allowances like a large portion of the world? If so, how would this be calculated as it would not be fair to withhold 30% despite (almost certainly) not reaching the threshold for applicable tax. Hopefully, some further light can be shed on this matter. 

Hi Oscar K,

Your question is covered on our FAQ page (http://creators.xna.com/en-US/faq):


Non-U.S. based Creator
Non-U.S. Creators are not considered a U.S. Person as per the W-9 definition.

A Tax Identifier Number is not strictly required to get paid, although without it you will be subject to an automatic 30% U.S. tax withholding. If your country has a tax treaty with the U.S then you will be able to take advantage of that providing you have a relevant Tax Identifier Number.

In order to take advantage of any treaties between the U.S. and your country you will require one of the following Tax Identifier Numbers(TIN):

• Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) or Social Security Number (SSN)
• Employer Identification Number (EIN)
• Microsoft ITIN Letter

For more information refer to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service website.

Jenkmeister:

Yes, you'll see a new section later today. It's just Friday morning here in Seattle so we haven't flipped the switch for that section yet... stay tuned...

The day is still young (at least here in Seattle). Let's try to be patient. I'm sure they'll flip the switch when they're ready.

Funkmasonry Industries:

Jenkmeister:

Yes, you'll see a new section later today. It's just Friday morning here in Seattle so we haven't flipped the switch for that section yet... stay tuned...

Is the section still going to be posted today? Also, when the new section goes up, will our payments also be processed? I'm just curious as to how soon I'll actually get the payment in my bank account. Thanks guys!!

The payments into your bank account and access to the payment history data are two separate things. The payments are going ahead on the schedule that the payment company has.

We are still working on getting the data opened up today but have run into an issue that can only be resolved by our operations team. It may be Monday now before the data is available, but we'll post a final yes or no on whether it'll be available today in a few hours from now...

Thanks for the update Jenkmeister. If our payments don't actually have anything to do with the new tab on the My Business page, I guess it's not all that important for the payment history data to be put on the website anytime soon.

The payment history section of the my business page is now available for creators. Sorry for the delay in getting it out today!

Jenkmeister:

The payment history section of the my business page is now available for creators. Sorry for the delay in getting it out today!

Thanks for all the hard work!  I just checked out the payment history and earning pages.  Everything seems to be working and it matches the sales estimates.

Thanks again!

The link doesn't work for my Metacreature account. When I click on it I get sent back to the creators.xna.com homepage.

What date did you have to reach the $150 mark by?

I've easily sold that many by now, but I'm told that there are no transactions in my history.  Could this be because I went up after the quarter ended?

Looks good, thanks Jenkmeister and the rest of the XNA Team! Just a quick question -- what do debit, credit, and balance mean in this context? Thanks again!

Funkmasonry Industries:

Looks good, thanks Jenkmeister and the rest of the XNA Team! Just a quick question -- what do debit, credit, and balance mean in this context? Thanks again!

I believe credit should be Microsoft's payment to the external payment company. Debit should be the payment company paying your bank account. Balance should be any money less than $150 when you haven't earned enough in the quarter to get paid.

Nick Gravelyn:

The link doesn't work for my Metacreature account. When I click on it I get sent back to the creators.xna.com homepage.

Unfortunately there is a bug remaining on the payment transaction site that requires the account still have a valid premium membership. We are looking at getting that fixed as soon as possible but I don't have a time estimate on that as yet. The payment to the bank account will still take place, it's just viewing the data won't be available.

SRH:

What date did you have to reach the $150 mark by?

I've easily sold that many by now, but I'm told that there are no transactions in my history.  Could this be because I went up after the quarter ended?

The quarter ended at the end of March. So the data will only be for sales to occurred by then. If your game went up in April then that's why you aren't seeing any transaction data at this time.

When I click on the thingy it just takes me to the PII page. I'm guessing because I haven't filled it in yet. What would be cool though is if I could see that 'balance' thing so I know how much I earned for the quarter.

Jenk,

Hmmm... Are you sure about that? I have the exact same numbers in Credit and Balance, but nothing in debit. My royality check is well more than $150 and most of it was earned in December. I think Balance is money that I haven't been paid for whatever reason, including the payment company not processing the payment (yet).

Or maybe I just misread your post, I am tired after all.

- JDP

Thanks a lot!

By the way, Jenkmeister, tell the graphics team that the XNA Icon for the payments section is awesome :D