Harvard is required to indicate the “location of activity” when paying income to foreign individuals and foreign entities due to IRS tax withholding and reporting compliance needs. Most often, this is seen when the departments are asked to provide the country of the activity when processing payments in Accounts Payable. Generally, the location of the activity would be where a service is being performed or the location where fellowship income is expected to be utilized in support of one’s scholarship or research.
Some examples:
- Select Spain as the location of activity when paying a speaker located in Spain who participated on a Zoom panel.
- Select the United States as the location of activity when processing a payment for services performed by a foreign entity that sent a consultant to the U.S. to work on a project.
- Select Germany as the location of activity when processing a summer fellowship to a fellow that will be traveling to and living in Germany over the summer to pursue additional scholarly activities.
Incorrect or missing information may result in payment delays or incorrect tax withholding. Please contact Nonresident Alien Tax Compliance with any questions nratax_ufs@harvard.edu.
Additional information can be found at the Nonresident Alien Tax Compliance website.