I’m a Russian Shop Owner/Affiliate, how can I receive a payout?
At this time, Creative Market is unable to issue payouts to Russian accounts due to recently imposed government sanctions. This means that unfortunately, until these sanctions are lifted, we will be unable to issue payouts to our Shop Owners living in Russia.
I understand that you can’t send payments to Russian banks or PayPal accounts, but what about Payoneer? I just used their Global Payment System to receive a USD payment via ACH last month.
Unfortunately, we are also unable to issue payouts to your Payoneer account. Our payment partner, Tipalti, has determined that issuing payments this way is a compliance risk that could result in severe penalties for violating imposed sanctions. Therefore, despite the fact that you may have received a payout via Payoneer recently, our payment partner will no longer be processing payments via Payoneer moving forward.
Shutterstock and Adobe are still allowing payments to Russian sellers via Payoneer, so it must be okay for Creative Market to do also?
We cannot comment on the practices of other marketplaces, we can only confirm that our payment partner and their respective compliance teams have stated that they will not be approving or processing payments via Payoneer.
But I am against this war, why are you punishing me for the actions of the Russian government?
Creative Market is not actively choosing to refuse payment to our Russian sellers, nor are we doing this to punish you. This is simply a legal issue, and we must comply with the laws set forth by the US government. In this case, the law restricts us from issuing payouts to Russian accounts and until the sanctions are lifted, we are unable to issue these payouts due to circumstances beyond our control.
What happens to all the funds I’ve earned from selling on Creative Market?
Your earnings will remain in your Creative Market account. When sanctions have been lifted or an alternative solution for issuing payments to our Russian sellers arises, those funds will be available for withdrawal.
My friend/relative lives in another country, can I receive my payout to their account? What if I just change all my payout and tax information to theirs?
You are strictly prohibited from using someone else’s bank or tax information to receive payment due to the compliance and tax implications it causes in addition to it violating the Terms of Service you agreed to when you opened a shop. Any attempts to do so will result in the closure of your shop.
I don’t live in Russia anymore and my payment still got deferred/rejected due to sanctions. Why?
If you no longer live in Russia but you’ve recently had your payment deferred/rejected, it is likely that you have failed to update your relevant tax and payment information to reflect your new residency in another country. Please visit the Tax and Payment Setup to update your information as soon as possible.
Please note that you may still be contacted by our payment partner’s compliance team if your payment is flagged for review. If you are contacted by our payment partner’s compliance team, they will ask for a valid ID and proof of your new address via providing a recent (within the past 30 days) bank statement, utility bill, lease agreement, etc. with your name and address on it. Please do not submit a support ticket providing these documents in advance. Creative Market Support cannot assist with compliance clearance and it cannot be done in advance. These documents can be submitted directly via the Tax and Payment Setup once they’ve been requested by our payment partner’s compliance team.
I recently updated my payment/tax information and was asked to submit additional supporting documents. It's been a few days now and it still hasn’t been approved and I’m getting taxed!
If you were prompted to submit additional supporting documentation with your recent payment/tax form update, then your tax form will require manual review and approval by our team. Creative Market’s Tax/Payment Operations team is very small, and we’ve been receiving an overwhelming and unprecedented amount of tax forms for manual review as a result of the situation between Ukraine and Russia (sanctions affect not only our Russian sellers, but our Ukrainian and Belarussian sellers as well). We are working as fast as we can to review all the forms submitted, and we will get to yours as soon as we can. Please do not submit a support ticket asking for a status update or for your form to be approved, as these tickets are overwhelming our Support team and will not result in a quicker approval time. Standard approval time is 7-10 business days, and we are currently experiencing further delays.
We are required to withhold at the maximum withholding rate of 30% when we do not have validated tax information on file. This means that you may be subject to additional tax withholdings while your form is pending approval. Unfortunately, we cannot refund or return any withheld tax as it is automatically remitted to the IRS upon transaction. You will, however, be able to pursue a refund directly from the IRS at the end of the tax year, Creative Market issues a 1042-S tax statement listing any withheld tax. For more on taxes, please review our Tax and Payout Guide.