Help me understand how to work on GitHub from Tunisia

[firasrg]

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Hello community 👋

According to my profile description, my Linkedin and my C.V, I have held the title of Software Developer since 2018. I work as an employee for a private company in Tunisia. A very passionate person, I do a lot of development activities outside of work and I love GitHub 💙!

I have been looking for a way to do some extra work online for a long time, but safely, I tried with some traditional approaches, but they weren't sufficient or effective; Today, after paying close attention to the GitHub Sponsors feature, I'm very happy to finally find what I've been waiting for: Make contributions, small projects, discussions, earn something 💰 in return and grow as I go. 🛴.

Following the description of GitHub Sponsors, I realized that it is, currently, legal in Tunisia! So I started to share the idea with my bank adviser: he told me that he has no idea. I did this to verify precisely if it is really legal in Tunisia and if there are some people who use it already, but I did not receive any response sofar!

Eventually, he told me "If your bank account receives money from outside the country, there should be evidence that this money is due to providing a service to the person/entity who sent it, and this requires something such as a contract or invoice, in order to justify the transaction and allow you to get your cash".

FYI, I have read the documentation of the Sponsors service, especially the Tax information section that talks about a form, but I feel I'm still faraway from understanding what should I do exactly in steps.

I have to tell you that cuurently, there are some problems in finnancial laws in my country, I'm afraid of getting into troubles If I do not follow a safe way in this topic.

So, as you can see. Please give me your support😥. I have more than one question actually:

1. If I submit the form and subscribe to Sponsors, what will be next?
2. What do you think about what my bank advisor said to me?
3. If this isn't the right place to ask, where should I ask?

Thanks in advance

[anjuan]

GitHub Sponsors allows open source projects to receive financial support. Anyone can set up a Sponsors profile if they have a GitHub account.

Financial rules and regulations vary from region to region, and a financial advisor in your country can help you understand the implications of participating in GitHub Sponsors.

[firasrg]

Hello @anjuan !

Thank you for your reply. I'm still looking for someone in my country, to help me understand the process. But, It seems it still new and not well known. Thats why I address myself to you: Could you please give me your contact or organizations your work with in Tunisia, so I can contact it directly ?

Otherwise, I'll try to look for an advisor.

[firasrg]

Hello again!

After spending days and weeks looking for an advisor/lawyer/accountant. I came up with no valuable results! I'm even not able to understand what its written in the docs about fiscality, the terms and explanations are difficult.

Can we make things more simple please ? I'm looking for an adviser from GitHub Sponsors service to help me out, and tell me about the deal between GitHub and my country, Tunisia. The where, when, why and how.

So please help, I really need this to improve myself.

Thanks again

[anjuan]

Hi @firasrg,

I'm the Engineering Manager for GitHub Sponsors, and, unfortunately, we can't offer you financial advice. If you have a question about GitHub Sponsors itself, I'd love to help!

[firasrg]

Hello! I'm glad you answer me again @anjuan

My question is about GitHub Sponsors actually, I just want to undetstand the docs, typically that part talking about fiscality form and IRS. Do you think that It's possible to contact IRS service online?

The fact, that I cannot obtain the account without submitting the form, that's why I'm asking about it.

[firasrg]

Hello @anjuan !

Based on my bank adviser, who told me:

If your bank account receives money from outside the country, there should be evidence that this money is due to providing a service to the person/entity who sent it, and this requires something such as a contract or invoice, in order to justify the transaction and allow you to get your cash".

I ask you the following question: If I have sponsors service activated for my account, then I get financial support from individuals and/or organizations, does GitHub will send me something such as a document or an email proving that I received money from abroad in exchange for a service I performed?

thanks

[Carlgo11]

@firasrg it seems you have two questions.

1. Regarding the IRS document

The W-4 document is a document that GitHub needs for tax purposes. It doesn't matter if you're inside or outside the U.S. as GitHub still has to apply to U.S. regulations.

2. Regarding invoices and advance notice of payments.

If you choose SWIFT/IBAN payments, there won't be any advance notices of payments but you can see the estimated amount and payout date in Sponsor Dashboard > Payouts. Detailed information on previous payments can also be obtained at the same place.
If you on the other hand choose to use Stripe as the payment provider, you can see payments in advance of the payout via the Stripe Express dashboard.
You may also choose to receive the payments through a third-party fiscal host. In that case, any payouts to you would be handled by the fiscal host. If getting the donations sent to your own bank is tricky, I would personally suggest this method. There is however most often a fee for them to handle your donations so research the best fiscal host for you before committing to one.

[firasrg]

Hi @Carlgo11! After carefully reading what you wrote here, I answer you that my only option is SWIFT/IBAN payment. As for donations, I can receive via MoneyGram.

By the way, I'd like to know something about the following :

there won't be any advance notices of payments but you can see the estimated amount and payout date in Sponsor Dashboard > Payouts. Detailed information on previous payments can also be obtained at the same place.
If you on the other hand choose to use Stripe as the payment provider, you can see payments in advance of the payout via the Stripe Express dashboard.

How do you know these information please ? Are you working with GitHub or are you already following this way ?

Also :

You may also choose to receive the payments through a third-party fiscal host. In that case, any payouts to you would be handled by the fiscal host.

Actually, I don't want to allow any cash reception except from GitHub, I don't know about fiscal host services, would you like to tell me about some reliable ones ?

I appreciate your help.

[svlandeg]

Hi @firasrg! I was wondering whether you've been able to figure this out? In particular, I wonder about this as well:

does GitHub will send me something such as a document or an email proving that I received money from abroad in exchange for a service I performed?

[firasrg]

Hi there! Actually No, I'm still looking for clear answers from GitHub about their deal with my country. I honestly, got stuck and demotivated 😌. But i'm sure they will answer us one day. Please react to the main message above with arrow-up button, so they can see it.

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