Indian sole proprietor on Steam, name mismatch between PAN (personal name) and bank account (trade name). How did you solve this?
Hey everyone, hoping to get some help from other Indian indie devs who might have run into this.
I am a solo developer based in India, registered as a sole proprietorship. My game is almost ready and I am going through the Steamworks onboarding process. I have hit a frustrating wall around the name mismatch issue.
Here is the situation:
In India, sole proprietorships do not get a separate PAN. The PAN is always under the proprietor's personal name (let's say "XYZ Person"). However, the HDFC current account I use for my business is under the trade name ("XYZ Studio"). I confirmed with my HDFC branch manager that they cannot add the personal name to a sole proprietor's current account. The account name has to stay as the trade name.
The problem is that Steam requires all three of the following to match:
- Steamworks Partner Name
- Bank Payee Name
- Tax Legal Name on the W-8BEN
Since my PAN is under my personal name, I had to use my personal name for the W-8BEN. That got verified and approved. But now the Partner Name (personal name) does not match my bank account (trade name), so my bank details are showing as invalid on Steamworks.
What I have tried so far:
- Contacted HDFC, confirmed the bank account name cannot be changed
- W-8BEN and KYC are already verified under my personal name
- I have all my business documents ready: Udyam, Shop and Establishment, GST certificate
Has anyone from India dealt with this exact situation? Specifically:
- Did Steam support agree to change your Partner Name back to your business/trade name after KYC was verified under your personal name?
- Did it cause any issues with your W-8BEN or tax withholding?
- Did your bank payments go through successfully even though the tax interview shows a different name than the Partner Name?
Any guidance would be really helpful. Launching soon and this is the last blocker. Thanks.