Unable to verify your Tax ID number on Upwork

[gopip18]

Please check my Legal Taxpayer Name. Now I verified the legal name and PAN number. Please check and approve.

[AveryO]

Hi Gopi, 

Please ensure that the "Legal taxpayer name" on your Tax Information (ID) and your Form W-8BEN should exactly match the name registered on your PAN ID (can be found on the TRACES records). 

[ravi_iitian]

Hi,

I know my PAN number is valid as I file my ITR every year.

Today, I received an email from Upwork that my Tax ID could not be verified.

I have attached a screenshot of the email received.

There is a suggestion that my name could be different in Upwork and TRACES.

What is TRACES?

BTW, I have not had TDS deducted for several years now as my income has fallen below the taxble limit.

I would greatly appreciate any help or advice.

Thank you.

[AveryO]

Hi Ravindra, 

TRACES (TDS Reconciliation Analysis and Correction Enabling System) is an online facility provided by the Income Tax Department of India. If you have an account on TRACES, you can see your year-to-date tax info by logging in on the website. Here's a link to their website. 

Please make sure that the legal name you add to your Tax Information (ID) and the Form W8-BEN must match the registered name on the PAN ID. If you have a question about paying TDS, we suggest you reach out to a trusted tax expert or advisor to learn more about Indian TDS and your tax obligations since we cannot offer specific tax advice. You may find more information on Indian TDS here.

[ravi_iitian]

Thank you, Avery.

I had not looked at the name under W8-BEN.

I just found that the name there was “Self-Employed”

I honestly don’t recall entering that.

I have now enterd the correct full name.

Hopefully, that will solve the problem.

[lat_if]

Hi Avery,

I am also facing the same issue.

The issue is when we delete and re-submitt the tax information id, there is no way to add a name. The below name comes by default. We can only add our tax id. 

And the same information is seen in W-8BEN. However, under W-8BEN we are able to add the tax payer name.

Not sure what is the requirement? If we put our proper name under W-8BEN, then obviously it wont match legal tax payer name in the above field. And in the above field there is no way to edit the legal tax payer name. 

Pleae advise.

[AveryO]

Hi Abdul, 

Could you please try editing your Form W-8BEN first by clicking on the pencil icon? Once edited, please delete your Tax Identification (ID) and re-add it again. 

If this doesn't solve your issue, please let us know, and our team will assist you further.

[lat_if]

Avery, thank you for your quick help. Yes, that did re-solve the name issue. However, I am still an unverified user as it says PAN pending verification. 

Thanks

[lat_if]

Hello, 

Further to my message above. I have been receiving my tax certificate properly from Upwork all these years. So how come the same tax id suddenly becomes invalid today?

I have cross verified my id with efiling (govt of India website). It says its valid.

I have deleted my tax id and resubmitted on Upwork as was asked in the email. However now it says PAN pending verification. Till this is not verified, my tax will be deducted at 5% vis-a-vis 1% (for verified users.), which I was till one day ago.

I am unncessarily getting hit on the tax rates.

Kindly provide a solution to this issue. 

Thanks for your help. 

[AveryO · Accepted solution]

Hi Abdul, 

The TAX ID (PAN) status is under "Pending Verification" until we have a manual verification for PAN. Once you enter a PAN number, you will automatically get a reduced withholding tax of 1% regardless of the PAN "Pending Verification" status. There is no further action needed on your end. 

[kshitijshah30]

Hi Avery,

For Individual this worked well for us. But for agency this is not working even after updating twice as instructed.

In India there is a concept of Priopriotership business, where PAN will only reflect the name of the individual and business name is only reflected in Income tax return. In such case, You may agree that the name of individual and PAN to be mentioned in Tax information and W-8BEN. I did so, but still it did not verify my PAN.

Now Please guide me how do I resolve this for my agency? Thank you.

[PradeepH]

Hi Shah,

Thank you for your message. Could you please confirm if you have tried removing and re-adding the PAN details? 

Thank you

Pradeep

[kshitijshah30]

Hi Pradeep,

Yes, I already tried it twice and in both attempt I mentioned different name in W-8BEN. Once my name on PAN and once the name the agency name registered with Upwork but both got rejected without any reason.

I hope that's useful info. Thanks.

K**bleep**ij Shah

[NikolaS]

Hi Shah,

One of our team members will reach out to you directly via a support ticket to assist you further. You can access your tickets on this page.

[kshitijshah30]

Hi Nikola,

Thank you for taking it up. I will be waiting for support ticket.

regards,
K**bleep**ij Shah

[5d999b86]

Hello Team,

I am facing the same issue currently , I have added my PAN details twice and I get the same "Unable to verify your Tax ID number on Upwork". Please assist 

[LuiggiR]

Hi Sarannian,

I can see that you've managed to add your PAN number successfully. No further action on the Upwork platform is necessary. Note that we cannot directly verify your tax information. Once you add the information to your Upwork account, we submit it to the Indian Tax authorities for verification. 

[2e825493]

Dear Pradip, 

I am also unable to validated and verified my PAN no. As per IT department is already validated and verified. But, Upwork is telling the different. I don't know how to get my payment. So, please let me know. Thanks, Amlan

[gagan_developer]

I have added PAN card information on the upwork but still shows verification pending and deducting 5% tax from the amount that I received from the client. It should be 1%. Could you help me with this? Or what else do I need to do? 

[AndreaG]

Hi Gagan,

It looks like you added your PAN after the payments you're referring to were released. Please note that you should start being charged 1% after there is a PAN on file for your account.

[gagan_developer]

Hi Andrea,

But I did not withdraw the money, Technically it is with Upwork so it should take 1% holding.
Could you please clarify or elaborate on this point "Please note that you should start being charged 1% after there is a PAN on file for your account?"

Thanks,

Gagan Bhatia

[4608bca4]

Hello Avery,

Quoting you -  I will get a "reduced withholding tax of 1% regardless of the PAN "Pending Verification" status." I added the PAN details on 22nd Sep 2022 which was showing "pending" status till 28th Sep 2022. (which was more than your standard 3 days time) and when I got my invoice (on 27th ) in this time frame only with a 5% deduction than on the 28th, I searched your community and read somewhere to delete and re-add the details, so I did the same.

Avery, Now my concern is why in the first place it was 5%. And second, how can you help me get the refund?

Looking for a positive response.

Thanks 

Anami.

[n_sritharan]

Hi There,

I have registered a sole propritership business and provided my GST/HST number on upwork However I have received emsil saying my TAX ID is unable to verified although my business legal name is similar as on Upwork. 

Kindly assist

thanks 

Nisha

[AndreaG]

Hi Nisha,

Thank you for reaching out. I can see that you've already raised a support ticket regarding your concern. You can access your support tickets here. Note that support requests are responded to in the order they are received. Kindly allow 24-48 hours for the team to follow up with you and assist you further.

[cb34ef4a]

I have added my agency details with PAN card number. It's still taking 5%. It should take 1%.

Could you please help me on this?

[cb34ef4a]

What is the PAN verification process? I have added PAN details at agency account but it still took extra 5%.

Whom should I reach out for this?  

( Note - I am writing the same thing 3rd time but no one resolved the issue )

[PradeepH]

Hi Neetu,

Thank you for your message. I see that the PAN details were added on August 1st, 2023. All earnings before adding the PAN details will be charged at a 5% Withholding Tax. Your Withholding Tax will be reduced to 1% for all earnings after August 1st.

- Pradeep

[1f48c3ee]

I am beginner and recently I have completed my first contract and got to know that we need to add tax information and pancard. I added. But still I got that red line saying verify your tax details or else you will get 5% tds. I thought it was a glitch but from my client payment 5% tds was taken. What should I do? How should i verify now.

[655be748]

Dear Sajiya S:

If you have provided the tax information, it will take some time to reflect it to your profile. If you have urgency you can log off and log in again, I think it will work.

Regards.

[NikolaS]

Hi Sajiya,

I’ve escalated your community post to a support ticket. One of our agents will be in touch with you soon to assist.

[devsnyder]

Hi Avery,

My TAX details are already updated and verified however Upwork is still withholding 5% instead of 1% from my payments. Could you please look into this issue.

Regards,

Debasis Mishra

[867f2a3c]

Hi AveryO,

I already added my pan number and its verified but now its showing tax deduction/TDS Is 5%  and i already linked my aadhar number (identification number in india).

Please help me 

[jitesh75]

My tax id is verified but I receive an email from upwork saying that your Tax id is not verified. I can see my deducted TDS in my traces.

One day before, I got an email from upwork saying that your tax id has been verified.

What should I do? Please suggest.

[AveryO]

Hi Jitesh, 

I apologize for the delay. We are still looking into this further, and we'll come back here once we have more information regarding your concern. 

[AveryO]

Hi Jitesh, 

This should now be resolved. Thank you for patiently waiting.

[sutapa_deb]

Completely frustrated situation with my PAN verification process.  Anyone facing like the same problem, which was happened with me? I received one email that my PAN was verified (8.31 PM, IST), few minutes later I received another email that "Upwork was unable to verify my PAN" (8.48 PM, IST), Yes, this was happend today, just few hours before.  Please check attached both screenshots. How it is possible, once my PAN was verified and few minutes later that was going to unverify status? 
Already contacted with Upwork Support Agent, she suggested "Kindly reenter your details on your Tax Information page so we can validate it again." My question, how many times, I need to delete and re-enter my PAN details? As already I have deleted and re-entered my PAN details two times. Note that, Those who will not remediate their ID status will be charged a higher 5% withholding tax in India starting April. 
Expecting your opinions.
Sutapa

[vchandrasv]

In India we're supposed to pay taxes in each quarter, There is a TDS amount of 1%  deducted(Pan number verified account) by upwork on each client payments. 

Now when I'm trying to pay advance tax to India Government, the TDS amount with holding from upwork is not reflected in India government tax portal against the PAN number, also the form 16 is also not available in Upwork for Indian freelancers, How can I claim that this 1% is deducted and paid by upwork, So that I can pay only the remaining amount during advance tax payment

Please help us with more details

[NikolaS]

Hi Chandra,

Thank you for reaching out to us. One of our team members will reach out to you directly via a support ticket to assist you further. You can access your tickets on this page.

[muneeshpandi]

I am facing the same issue here..It was verified before..for some reason i got email to verify it again..I have added thrice but it keep failing. It would be great if someone could help here. Thansks in Advance!!!

[086060a3]

I have faced issues with verifying a PAN number. I have readded my PAN number a few times but each time the verification has been failing. A few days ago I readded a PAN number. The verification is still pending. Can somebody please help me to verify the PAN detail?
Thank you.