The following is guidance denoting what are allowable digital signatures on tax forms and vendor forms.
Signatures on tax and vendor forms must go through an official digital signature process and cannot simply been typed in, as typed names are not valid signatures under federal regulations.
Please ensure that signed tax forms and vendor forms submitted to Finance have one of the following:
- A “wet” signature (i.e., the recipients printed and signed the form with a writing utensil, then scanned it)
- An AdobeSign audit trail page showing that the recipients digitally signed the document (example attached below)
- Some other form of digital signature with an official digital signature stamp showing the date and time of signature (example attached below)
For foreign participants who are not able to provide signatures meeting the above requirements due to limited technology access, etc., program teams may collect tax and vendor forms via Formsite if they meet the following requirements:
- Only W-8s and foreign participant vendor forms can have signatures collected via Formsite. W-9s and U.S. person/entity vendor forms must have one of the signature types listed above.
- The signature must reflect the signer’s name and cannot be something unrelated, such as simply an “X” on the signature line.
- The information must be submitted to Finance on the official W-8 and/or vendor forms. There is an add-on in Formsite that allows for this.
- The date and time of signature must be noted on the form submission.
