Built for university tax & AP offices

Stop guessing on non-employee tax withholding

Automated tax determination for every honorarium, stipend, and contractor payment your university makes. NRA or domestic, treaty or no treaty — get the right answer in minutes, not hours.

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Set up in 10 minutes
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Treaty Applied US-India Art. 21 — $8,000 exempt
TaxCalc — New Payment
Step 1 of 4
Is the payee a person or an organization?
Individual Organization / Entity
Step 2 of 4
What is the payee's tax residence status?
US Person Foreign / NRA Dual-Status
⚡ Auto-determined
Required form: W-8BEN → 1042-S
30% → 15% Withholding auto-calculated

Purpose-built for higher education

175+
Tax determination rules
65+
Treaty countries covered
50
State withholding jurisdictions
<15 min
Average payment processing

Non-employee tax compliance shouldn't require a law degree

Your office pays guest speakers, research participants, consultants, and scholars. Every payment is a tax determination puzzle — and the penalties for getting it wrong are real.

IRS penalty exposure
Incorrect withholding on NRA payments triggers penalties up to 30% of the payment amount, plus interest. One mistake on a $10,000 honorarium costs your institution $3,000.
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Hours per payment
Manually determining treaty eligibility, correct withholding rate, SPT status, and which form to file takes 1-2 hours per NRA payment. Your staff has better things to do.
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Tribal knowledge risk
When your one person who "knows tax" retires or leaves, the institutional knowledge walks out the door. Spreadsheets don't explain why a decision was made.
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Enterprise tools are overkill
Legacy platforms cost $40,000+/year and require months of implementation. They're built for huge research universities, not your 200-payment-a-year office.

With TaxCalc University

Answer guided questions, get the right answer The system walks you through each determination step-by-step. No tax code expertise needed — the logic is built in.
Treaty benefits applied automatically Built-in treaty tables for 65+ countries. Enter the country, we find the article, rate, and exemption amount.
Full audit trail on every payment Every answer, every determination, every auto-calculation — logged and explainable. Be ready when the auditors call.
$199/mo, not $40,000/year Month-to-month pricing that fits your budget. No long-term contract, no implementation fee, no surprises.

Three steps to compliant payments

No training required. If you can fill out a form, you can use TaxCalc.

1

Enter the payment details

Start a new payment by entering the payee's email and basic payment info. The system creates a guided workflow for this specific payment — no two are the same.

2

Answer the guided questions

The system asks only the questions that apply. Answer whether the payee is US or foreign, their visa type, the payment category — and watch downstream fields auto-populate in real time.

3

Get your tax determination

TaxCalc determines the correct withholding rate, required forms (W-8BEN, 1042-S, 1099, 8233), treaty benefits, and state withholding — all documented and audit-ready.

Everything you need, nothing you don't

Built specifically for university tax offices making non-employee payments. Every feature exists because a real tax office needed it.

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NRA Tax Determination

Automatic Substantial Presence Test calculation, visa-type exempt period tracking, treaty eligibility, and Chapter 3/4 status determination for every foreign payee.

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Treaty Benefit Engine

Built-in treaty tables covering 65+ countries. Automatically identifies the correct article, withholding rate, exemption cap, and term limits for each payment type.

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Form Determination

Tells you exactly which forms are required — W-9, W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E, 8233, 1042-S, 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC — based on the answers, not guesswork.

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State Withholding

Covers all 50 states including no-income-tax jurisdictions, multi-state service allocation, and whether your state honors federal treaty benefits.

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Real-Time Tax Profile

A live summary sidebar shows the running tax determination as you answer questions. See withholding rates, form requirements, and treaty status update instantly.

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Audit-Ready Trail

Every answer, every auto-derived calculation, and every override is logged with timestamps. When auditors ask "why did you withhold 15%?", you have the answer.

Simple pricing that fits your budget

No implementation fees. No long-term contracts. Start with a free trial and upgrade when you're ready.

Monthly
Annual Save 17%
Starter
For offices with occasional non-employee payments
$199
/month
Billed monthly
Start Free Trial
  • Up to 100 payments/year
  • 2 admin users
  • Full NRA + US person determination
  • Treaty benefit lookups (65+ countries)
  • Form determination (W-8, 1042-S, 1099)
  • Email support
Professional
For high-volume offices that need filing support
$799
/month
Billed monthly
Start Free Trial
  • Up to 1,500 payments/year
  • Unlimited admin users
  • Everything in Standard, plus:
  • 1042-S & 1099 file generation
  • Gross-up calculations
  • Multi-currency support
  • Dedicated account manager

All plans include a 30-day free trial. No credit card required to start. Need more than 1,500 payments? Let's talk.

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Bank-Grade Encryption

All data encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256). TIN and PII data handled with the same security as financial institutions.

SOC 2 Compliant

We're pursuing SOC 2 Type II certification. Your IT security office can review our controls documentation on request.

🇧🇸

US-Hosted Infrastructure

Hosted on AWS in US data centers. Your data never leaves the country. Compliant with FERPA data handling requirements.

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Annual Tax Updates

Treaty tables, withholding rates, and form requirements are updated every tax year. You always have the current rules — no manual updates needed.

"We used to spend two hours per NRA payment cross-referencing treaty tables and IRS publications. Now I answer the questions in TaxCalc, and it tells me the withholding rate and which forms to file. It paid for itself in the first week."
SM
Sarah Mitchell
Tax Compliance Manager, Regional University

Common questions

Everything you need to know before getting started.

What types of payments does TaxCalc handle?
TaxCalc handles all non-employee payments made by universities: honoraria, stipends, consulting fees, research participant payments, prizes and awards, royalties, independent contractor payments, and scholarship/fellowship disbursements. Both domestic (US person) and international (NRA) payees are supported.
How is this different from Glacier?
Glacier is built for large research universities and focuses primarily on NRA compliance. TaxCalc covers both US and NRA payees in a single workflow, costs a fraction of the price, requires no implementation project, and you can be running in 10 minutes. If you're making under 1,500 payments a year, TaxCalc gives you everything you need without the enterprise price tag.
Is there a long-term contract?
No. All plans are month-to-month. You can cancel anytime with no penalty. We also offer annual billing at a 17% discount if you prefer to lock in a rate. We earn your business every month — not through a contract.
How long does setup take?
About 10 minutes. Create your account, enter your institution's withholding agent details (EIN, name, address), and you're ready to process your first payment. There's no implementation project, no IT involvement required, and no training needed — the guided workflow walks you through everything.
How do you handle data security and TINs?
All data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256) on US-based AWS infrastructure. TINs are stored with additional field-level encryption. We provide a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) for your records, and our security controls documentation is available for your IT team's review on request.
What happens when tax rules change?
We update treaty tables, withholding rates, form requirements, and determination logic every tax year — and whenever mid-year changes occur. Updates are automatic and included in your subscription. You're always working with the current rules without lifting a finger.
Can our payees fill out their own information?
Yes. On the Standard plan and above, payees receive an email link to a self-service portal where they answer their portion of the questions (identity, tax status, TIN, treaty claims). The university admin handles the payment-side questions. Both sides feed into the same determination engine.
Do you generate the actual tax forms (1042-S, 1099)?
On the Professional plan, yes. TaxCalc generates IRS-ready 1042-S and 1099 files that you can submit directly. On the Starter and Standard plans, TaxCalc determines which forms are required and provides all the data fields — you generate the forms in your existing system or paper filing process.

Start your free trial

Fill out the form below and we'll set up your account within 24 hours. No credit card required.