Hey all,
So I'm a solo Apple developer who moved to another country. I updated my address with Apple, App Store Connect asked me to sign new tax forms, and the US W-8BEN form showed up with Citizenship read-only field, showing my residency country instead of my real citizenship.
A known bug, reported since 2017, and the only workaround I found was to sign the false form anyway, signed "under penalties of perjury".
My dev account is practically locked: I can't ship apps with IAP now. Apple Finance hasn't answered for 24 days now, Developer Support replies with templates that don't fit, phone support isn't available.
A 9-year-old bug
If you moved abroad then according to Apple's tax form you're a citizen of wherever you live now. And signing that form means lying to the IRS. Until you sign, the Paid Apps Agreement stays pending forever: no paid apps, no in-app purchases. For comparison: Google Play has the same W-8BEN for the same developer after the same move, and there the citizenship field is open and I submitted a correct form.
Bug first reported in June 2017, then a new thread every month since summer: July, August, September, September again, October. Developers from Brazil, Pakistan, Germany, India, Israel, Slovakia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Belarus. Not one reply from Apple staff, just "I have similar issue" posts from folks into the void.
A known "workaround"
The one person who got an answer from Apple and shared it (thread 850390) posted what Apple Finance told him in writing: "Submit the US tax form in App Store Connect as it currently stands, wrong citizenship included." Then upload a correct paper W-8BEN through a link Finance sends, and remind them, because "they were clear they won't look for the file otherwise."
So a false tax form, signed under penalty of perjury, comes first, the truth later, in a PDF nobody opens unless reminded.
My own case
The guy who signed the false form got lucky. My Finance ticket, opened October 20, has had only an automatic reply for 24 days, so I can't even follow the bad procedure: the upload link never comes.
The cherry on top: my membership renewal is impossible, the Renew button is missing. Developer Support answered after 12 days that my region was the problem, and I should update my address to my current location. Which sounds like a joke, since Apple support already updated it a month ago. We are going in circles.
A trillion-dollar company, a bug first reported in 2017, and still nobody can unlock one HTML dropdown.
I don't think this is a normal way to treat developers who pay, then comply, comply, and comply again with App Store guidelines, only to find that Apple itself can't provide a working form for us to comply with finance.
UPDATE:
In the form HTML wrong country is set inline, and there's no list of countries to be selected, if read-only is removed. "XXX" is country code:
<select name="taxFormUsaW8Ben.country" disabled>
<option value="XXX">Name of country</option>
</select>
After posting this, I felt I had nothing to loose anyway, I replaced XXX manually with another country code inside HTML, and submitted (think "signed") the form. The signed form now shows the correct citizenship country and I was able to unblock my account financial state. So now it's a proven fact this bug could be EASILY fixed in their silly React front, and no one is doing anything about this for 9 years straight.