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I live in the middle east and I have signed up for a developer's account with Microsoft to publish apps on windows store. In order to receive payments, I had to provide the financial details such as 'Tax Profile' and 'Payout Account'.

The latter is rather easy, however when I completed the Tax Profile's page form, I got a message afterwards as follows:

The “Capacity” selected by the user during the tax form certification does not exhibit sufficient authority to sign a tax from. Documentation must be submitted to prove that the user is properly authorized to sign tax documents for the company. This may include an IRS Form 2848 or an internal power of attorney document indicating the signor's authority to sign tax documents.

I have got no clue what that is. What is an IRS FORM 2848 and what is a power of attorney?

Since I live in the middle east, in the Arabian world, can you please explain it in detail as who exactly can help me with that?

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IRS Form 2848, with instructions here is how you tell the IRS that so-and-so is authorized to represent you in proceedings with the IRS: that person has to be authorized to practice before the IRS. The form is one where you grant someone permission to act on your behalf if the IRS comes after you, and whereby the person swears to certain qualifications (the most important is "is authorized", which entails "is competent"), and are spelled out in Circular 230.

The underlying premise is that if you get money from selling an app, you can't evade tax liability, so MS wants (has) to be sure that you're not evading taxes. If you doing this for some company, the company has the tax liability; but you are apparently claiming to be the person who deals with tax matters for the company. Therefore, you have to establish that you are authorized to represent the company (the company could be in serious trouble if you incompetently fill out their tax form).

If you are not doing this for someone else, you probably checked the wrong box somewhere, since they are telling you "you haven't proven that you are authorized by X to sign for X". If you've formed a business "Suklsoft", then you'd have to show (by a company-internal document) that you are authorized to sign tax forms on behalf of "Suklsoft".

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  • I am not doing this for someone else, I am doing it for myself. I am the one who want to sell the apps. So, you think I made a wrong choice while filling the tax form?
    – Sukl
    Commented Sep 30, 2017 at 18:04
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    Probably: I have no idea how to navigate the MS maze, though, to find the right box, presumably within Tax Profile.
    – user6726
    Commented Sep 30, 2017 at 18:36
  • Presumably I made the wrong choice, do you think the choice that applies to me does not necessitate an attorney or other law personal?
    – Sukl
    Commented Sep 30, 2017 at 18:42
  • @Suki Probably, although they may require it of everyone who lives somewhere that the U.S. doesn't have the right kind of tax treaty with. In addition to authorizing someone to act on your behalf with the IRS the 2848 is a form that causes you to submit to the jurisdiction of the IRS.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Sep 30, 2017 at 19:12
  • I have updated my tax profile. It seems indeed I have checked a box that was completely unnecessary. My tax status is now Valid!!
    – Sukl
    Commented Oct 1, 2017 at 3:41
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A Power of Attorney is nothing but a legal document that allows you to grant a designated person power to execute deeds or take certain decisions on your behalf. This is usually used when a person cannot be physically present at a place to execute their deeds themselves. It is quite a powerful legal document because it allows the designated person the power to sign legal, financial or even real estate transactions on your behalf. Most Power of Attorneys are drawn such that there is a specified duration, after which the document is lapsed. But, there are cases where a duration is not mentioned. In such a case, you might need to revoke the Power of Attorney.

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