As an app developer, you want your work to be appreciated. A great way to receive this appreciation is by getting paid. Here's the info you need to understand about how to get paid from the Windows Store. For this info to help you, you must open a developer account.
Receiving payments
After you become a Windows Store developer, you're ready to submit paid apps for certification. Certification means that your app is approved to be listed on the Windows Store. But to actually publish the paid app to the Windows Store, you must do two things:
Setting up your payout account
A payout account is the bank account that we use to send you the proceeds from your sales.
To set up your payout account
- Sign in to the Windows Store Dashboard.
- Under Profile, click Payout to access your account info.
- Click Modify to manage your account.
- On the screen that appears, fill out the info for your account.
Note The fields you use to provide your account info accept only alphanumeric characters.
- Save your info.
Changing your account
At some point you may decide to update or change your payout account. To do that, follow the same steps that we describe in Setting up your payout account.
Important Changing your payout account can delay your payments by up to one payment cycle. This delay occurs because we need to verify the account change, just as we did when you first set up the payout account. You'll still get paid, but we'll add any payments for the current payment cycle to the next one.
Paying taxes
Different countries and regions have different tax requirements. With the Windows Store, you can fill out and submit your tax info quickly and electronically.
We refer to your tax info as your tax profile. For the most part, to create your tax profile, you must:
- Specify your country of residence and citizenship.
- Fill out the appropriate tax forms.
Using the Windows Store Dashboard, you can complete your tax profile quickly. Best of all, you can complete and submit your tax forms electronically; in most cases, you don't need to print and mail the forms.
Important The exact amount that you must pay in taxes depends on the countries and regions where you sell your apps. See the App Developer Agreement to find out for which countries Microsoft remits sales and use tax on your behalf. In other countries, depending on where you are registered, you may need to remit sales and use tax for your app sales directly to the local taxing authority. In addition, the app sales proceeds you receive may be taxable as income. We strongly encourage you to contact the relevant authority for your country or region that can best help you determine the right tax info for your Windows Store developer activities.
Completing your tax profile
To complete your tax profile, you first must have registered for a developer account. Then you must also have set up a payout account. After you meet these two requirements, you can access your tax profile info.
- Sign in to the Windows Store Dashboard and click Tax on the left side of the screen, under Profile. Review your current tax profile status and click Continue to complete the required forms.
- Answer the questions about United States citizenship and residency.
- Click Continue.
- If your name and address info are displayed, confirm them for the purposes of filing taxes.
Next you see electronic versions of the tax forms that you must complete. Regardless of your country of residence or citizenship, you must fill out United States tax forms to sell any apps through the Windows Store. Developers who satisfy certain United States residency requirements must fill out an IRS W-9 form. Other developers outside the United States must fill out an IRS W-8 form. You can fill out these forms online through the Windows Store Dashboard as you complete your tax profile.
A United States Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (or ITIN) is not required to receive payments from Microsoft or to claim tax treaty benefits.
Withholding rates
The info you submit in your tax forms determines the appropriate tax withholding rate. The withholding rate applies only to sales that you make into the United States. Sales into your own country or other non-US locations are not subject to withholding. The tax rates can vary, but for most developers registering outside the United States, the default rate is 30%. You have the option of reducing this rate if your country has agreed to an income tax treaty with the United States.
Tax treaty benefits
If you are outside the United States, you may be able to take advantage of tax treaty benefits. These benefits vary from country to country, and may allow you to reduce the amount of taxes that the Windows Store withholds. You can claim tax treaty benefits by completing Part II of the W-8BEN form. Again, we recommend you communicate with the appropriate resources in your country or region to determine whether these benefits apply you.
Payment thresholds
Here we describe the sales threshold that your sales must meet for us to pay you. We also explain the different ways we categorize the money you've earned.
Store fee
When you sign up for your developer account, you sign the App Developer Agreement. This agreement explains the relationship between you and Microsoft as it pertains to selling apps on the Windows Store. Part of this agreement explains the Windows Store fee that Microsoft charges for every sale made. Here's a brief overview:
When you sell apps through the Windows Store, we assess a Windows Store fee. For apps that generate less than $25,000 in sales, this fee is 30%. After the app generates its first $25,000 in sales, the fee on the subsequent revenue drops to 20%. These fees are officially defined in the App Developer Agreement. Always review that document if you have any questions. Also, these thresholds apply on a per-app basis. For example, if you have an app that generates $30,000 in sales, the Windows Store fee for those sales is 20%. If you have another app that generates $1000 in sales, the fee for those sales is 30%.
Payment categories
In the Windows Store, the money you earn falls into one of these categories:
- Reserved—money that is currently held and not yet available for payment. Typically, this money comes from the most recent sales. On average, funds remain in this category for about 30 days.
- Pending—money that has been held long enough to move out of the Reserved category, and will be scheduled for payment next month (if the payment threshold has been met).
- Available—the amount that we're planning to send to your payout account this month.
- Paid—the total amount that has been paid to you already.
Payment threshold
To get paid from the Windows Store, you must have at least $200 in app sales pending payment.
It's important to understand the difference between app sales and app proceeds. App sales refers to the total amount collected by the Windows Store (minus any taxes paid by the buyer). App proceeds refers to the amount you'll receive. Basically, your app proceeds are the amount that you've sold, minus the Windows Store fee. For example, if you have an app that sells for $10, and you sell 20 copies during your first billing cycle, your app sales are $200. Your app proceeds will be $140 ($200 in app sales minus $60 for the 30% Windows Store fee).
The $200 minimum payment threshold applies to the total of all of your app sales across all markets. For example, if you have 10 apps, and each app has made $20 in sales that you haven't yet been paid for, your account qualifies for payment.
Your account will not be qualified for payment during the current cycle if you have not accumulated $200 or more in app sales from all of your apps.
Tracking payments
The Windows Store includes financial reports that can help you stay up to date on your app sales. For more info, see How to track app sales.
International sales
If you choose to sell your app in multiple markets, we'll convert any app sales to your currency at the time we issue payment.
Build date: 3/19/2013
