I believe it will be advantageous to have my royalty income paid to my corporation (my business is playing gigs) because my accountant only has me pay FICA (payroll taxes) on my first $xxK in income.

Can I have BMI pay my corporation if I hold the copyrights in my name?

Thanks for the help. I'm signing my first library deal and this decision will have long term repercussions.

Best,

ASCAP has direct deposit and I imagine bmi does too. I dont think they care which bank account number you give them.

Hth,

Mazz

thanks John...I appreciate all the knowledge dispensed along the way.

You probably need to register your corporation as the publisher or writer so that the checks are cut directly to that entity. But that shouldn't be difficult to change.

You sure CAN! no problem at all!

As far as I know you can direct deposit your ASCAP/BMI royalties into any account you designate.

That being said, you may be jumping the gun here. From the time you sign your first library deal till the time you generate any income that would have ANY significance for tax purposes can be quite long... a few years. Often, placements don't occur for 2,3,4 years after tracks are with a library (or never). And then payments are 6-9 months behind broadcasts.

This is a very long term business. Short term $$$ windfalls in film/TV music are very rare.

Best of luck!
Casey

so here's the answer to my question per Valerie Patton in the Atlanta BMI office.

re: Can BMI pay my corporation?

Since I have no publishing company I could use my corporation as my publishing entity and for $150 one time fee get half of my earnings reported to my federal ID and the other half to my SSN since I originally registered with that number.

I could reassign my royalties to my corporation but that costs $500.

That's assuming you retain publishing; if the deal(s) you sign are like most library deals, the library will collect the publishing revenue or at least part of it.


When (or if) you get to the point where your royalty income is significant enough for any of this to actully make a real difference, the $500 would probably be a worthwhile expense...and a welcome business deduction...

thanks Matt!