New Western Union payment method

We’re excited to tell you that we're offering a new payment method for some countries. If you're located in Argentina, Chile, China (Mainland), Colombia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, or Romania, you can now sign up for Western Union Quick Cash, a new form of payment that lets you receive your AdSense payments in cash using the worldwide Western Union money transfer service. Payments will be available for pickup at your local Western Union agent the day after they are issued, according to our normal payment schedule.

It's free to receive your AdSense payments by Western Union; you'll no longer need to wait for a check to arrive in the mail. this choice can also cut down on bank fees and long clearing times associated with depositing checks.

Before you sign up, please keep these important points in mind:

• As mentioned above, Western Union Quick Cash is only available in Argentina, Chile, China (Mainland), Colombia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, and Romania. We'll be sure to let you know if we're able to offer new payment options to additional publishers.
  
• This payment method is currently only available to individual payee names; we can’t offer it to businesses.
  
• You'll need to bring your government-issued ID to pick up your payment, so please make sure that your AdSense account payee name exactly matches that of your ID. Please contact us if you need to update the payee name in your account.
  
• Payments must be picked up within 35 days of issuance or they will expire. If this happens, a payment hold will be placed on your AdSense account and the payment will be credited back to your account.
  
• Payments will be made in US dollars, but depending on your local Western Union agent, they may be picked up in your local currency.

If you're ready to begin receiving your AdSense payments by Western Union Quick Cash, just followthese instructions. If you have additional questions before getting started, please review the information in our Help Center.

Posted by Suzie Rha - AdSense Publisher Support

A taxing day of holiday shopping

It's Black Friday, so a number of our U.S. publishers are probably burning off last night's turkey right now by running around the mall looking for deals.

If you find time to log in to your AdSense account between holiday shopping trips, please be sure to check that your address and tax information are up-to-date and accurate. This way, we can properly prepare any tax form you're eligible to receive.

You can resubmit or update your tax information by following these steps:

1. Log in to your AdSense account
2. Click the My Account tab
3. Click the Tax information link
4. Follow the instructions on the Tax information page to update your current form, or to submit a new form.

In the meantime, if you'd like to avoid the crowds at the mall, why not try shopping on Google Checkout?

Posted by Korey Lee - AdSense Publisher Support

A few payments announcements

We'd like to notify you about two issues related to November checks and phone verification.

November checks
If you were issued a check at the end of November, you may have noticed the following message printed on the paystub:

CREDIT NOTE -VAT OVERCHARGE BETW.
1 JAN 2004 & 22/11/07 IF YOU NEED
DETAILS OF THIS VAT PLEASE EMAIL
GOOGLE@BDOSX.IE WITH CUSTOMER REF

However, the paystub should have read:

THIS CHECK IS FOR YOUR EARNINGS AS
PART OF THE GOOGLE ADSENSE PROGRAM.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE
EMAIL ADSENSE-SUPPORT@GOOGLE.COM

Please be assured that the November payment you received is for your AdSense earnings and is not a VAT credit note. In addition, this printing error will not affect your ability to deposit your AdSense earnings as usual.

Phone verification
We're currently experiencing difficulty with our phone verification system, but our engineers are working as quickly as they can to resolve the issue. If you see a prompt in your account asking you to verify your phone number, we ask that you hold off on attempting to do so for the time being. We'll be sure to post a follow-up here on the blog when we have more information for you. 

We apologize for any inconvenience or confusion caused by these two issues. Thanks for your patience in the meantime.

Posted by Dan Marcus - AdSense Publisher Support

Phone verification fixed

Our engineers have now resolved the phone verification issue we reported on Tuesday. If your account is still on a phone verification hold, please feel free to retry the verification process. For instructions on removing any holds on your account, visit your Payment History page and look for a 'Required Actions' box at the top of the page.

As always, we appreciate your patience. 

Posted by Arlene Lee - AdSense Publisher Support

Add taxes to your task list

To all our US publishers: before you spend the holidays gorging on sugar-coated culinary delicacies and spending quality time pelting your loved ones with snowballs, please take a moment to update your AdSense account tax information so we can issue your tax form for 2007. Verifying that your tax info is up to date now helps ensure that earnings won't be withheld from you later. You'll receive a tax form 1099-MISC if you meet the following requirements:

• You submitted a Form W-9, are not a corporation, and were paid at least US $600 in 2007 OR
• You indicated that you are subject to backup withholding and had taxes withheld

For those publishers whose earnings are reported, please note that payments dated in 2007 will be reported in 2007. This means that unpaid earnings from 2007 that are rolled over to 2008 (for example, December 2007 earnings paid in January 2008) will not be included.

To resubmit or update your tax information, please follow these steps:

1. Log in to your AdSense account
2. Click the 'My Account' tab
3. Click the 'Tax information' link
4. Follow the instructions on the 'Tax information' page to update your current form, or to submit a new form.

Don't forget to add "update AdSense tax information" to your to-do list! 

Posted by Korey Lee - AdSense Publisher Support

In good (tax) form

With tax season looming, we'll begin sending eligible publishers a Form 1099-MISC on January 31st. If you're eligible to receive one, you can expect it to arrive in the mail by the second week of February.

We'll send you this tax form if:

• You submitted a Form W-9, are not a corporation, and were paid at least US $600 in 2007, OR
• You indicated that you are subject to backup withholding and had taxes withheld 

If you happen to have your earnings reported on this form, keep in mind that payments dated in 2007 will be reported in 2007. This means that unpaid earnings from 2007 that are rolled over to 2008 won't be included. For example, December earnings which are paid in January won't be included as earnings for 2007.

Whether you're new to AdSense or just find it hard to keep tax details straight, please remember that all publishers are responsible for paying any taxes resulting from participating in the AdSense program. We recommend checking your account to ensure your tax information is up to date.

Posted by Korey Lee - AdSense Publisher Support

Pinning it down (to $10)

As part of our efforts to make sure that the AdSense account details publishers provide are valid and correct, we do a couple types of validation that you may be aware of: the Personal Identification Number (PIN) program and, in some locations, phone number verification. One or both of these verification methods is required in order to ensure the security and accuracy of your information so you can receive payments from AdSense.

In the past, our system would ask you to verify your information when your earnings reached $50. However, we've recently changed the threshold to $10. This lowered amount means many of you may see a PIN arrive in your mailbox soon, as well as a prompt in your account to verify your phone number. For more information about these holds, visit the links in the 'Required Actions' box on your Payment History page.


(Psst: If your all-time earnings are between $10 and $50, this might be a good time to learn all about PINs so you'll know what to expect. Or, if you prefer surprises, you can remain blissfully ignorant till a PIN mailer pops up in your mailbox. Just be sure you don't pitch it in the trash!)

Posted by Julie Beckmann - AdSense Publisher Support