legal question

[Nate Graham]

On 11/11/25 10:55 AM, Paul Brown wrote:
> Hello Mark,
> 
> This does look very confusing! What are you missing?
> 
> Maybe we can ask around to some of American colleagues and get some insight
> from them.

*raises hand as an American colleague who's familiar with this form and 
its purpose

Ben is correct. This form is used for payments made to "non-resident 
alien" service providers — none of which applies here because no service 
or employment contracts are involved, and no money has changed hands. 
Probably your accounting department assumes that the company has 
purchased a license to the app or something. You may need to explain to 
them, as Ben already mentioned, that the software is free to use even 
for commercial purposes.

If the company would like to make a payment, KDE e.V. would definitely 
appreciate a donation! Options include:
- One-time or recurring small donation: https://kde.org/donate
- Recurring corporate sponsorship: https://ev.kde.org/supporting-members

Note that in the second case, the payment may be deductible as a 
professional organization/trade association membership fee (because 
that's basically what it is), and in this case also no W8-BEN would be 
required. But talk to the accountants and see what they say, of course. 
This is not legal of financial advice.

Best of luck navigating the bureaucracy!


Nate Graham
CEO, Techpaladin Software
https://techpaladinsoftware.com