Kenyan YouTubers to pay tax to the U.S. government from June 2021

By Samuel Ouma

YouTube content creators worldwide, including Kenyans, have been dealt a significant blow after Google revealed that it would deduct taxes for the American government from their earnings.

All earnings generated from U.S. viewers through ad views, YouTube Premium, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Channel Memberships will be taxed.

In the email sent to content creators in Kenya, YouTube said that in a few weeks, it would ask the creators to submit their tax info in AdSense to determine the correct amount of taxes to deduct, if any apply.

“We are reaching out because Google will be required to deduct U.S. taxes from payments to creators outside the U.S. later this year,” read the part of the email.

Google will deduct 24 percent of creators’ total earnings who will fail to present their tax information by May 31.

 The new imposition could take effect from June 1.

The new move is not good news to global content creators who are already enduring economic recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.