[Fmpro] ASCAP & Taxes

[Mark Northam]

This brings to the forefront an interesting accounting reality at ASCAP...

They say their overall operating expenses are 12% of income, however that
includes 12% of ALL income, including foreign royalties paid to US writers
via ASCAP. Now, assuming ASCAP takes only 4% off the top of all foreign
incoming royalties (it's a very, very good question as to why they don't
list the "gross amounts" - that is the amount actually received by ASCAP on
behalf of it's writer member on the writer's statement), that means they
would have to take a lot more than 12% out of the domestic income in order
to have the overall blended rate end up at 14% overall.

And since the vast majority of foreign royalties received by ASCAP are for
writers, who aren't allowed to collect it directly from foreign societies
(without resigning from ASCAP internationally) the way ASCAP's US publisher
members are (yet another injustice and example of double standards at
ASCAP), it's a fair conclusion that ASCAP's writer members bear a greater
expense of the ASCAP Operating Expenses than the publishers do.

If any other financial organization that handles hundreds of millions of
dollars of other people's money refused to list the actual amounts received
on behalf of their members on member statements, they'd be in hot water in
an instant. Yet, at ASCAP, they do it with impunity. I wonder why that is.
Can you imagine a statement from your bank, stock brokerage, investment
house, etc that only listed your balance, and didn't list any of their fees
that they took out of YOUR money?

Just remember... The numbers on your ASCAP statement represent only what was
left after ASCAP took their "share" as a fee for sitting on your money for
whatever number of months they chose to do so. The fact that they do not
disclose their fees and deductions for these incoming foreign royalties on
their statements is troublesome to say the least. The fact that they go
further and prevent members from communicating directly with the
organization that sent the money (the foreign PRO, etc) only makes things
that much worse, is it's now impossible to confirm the correct amount paid
with the source who paid it.

Imagine if your bank told you, "Congratulations, we're paying you $9,245 out
of money we received on your behalf from another country. We're not going to
show on your statement whatever amount we decided to take as a fee, and
we're not going to show you on your statement the original amount they paid,
and we're not going to let you talk to the people that paid you the money,
just trust is that it's the right amount because it's the only number we're
going to show you on your statement. Please, stop asking questions and go
back to writing your music."

More ASCAP "transparency" at work....

Best,

Mark Northam


On 6/3/07 9:12 PM, "Pete" <musical411 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 12%
> 
> --- leshurdle wrote:
>> Ah ha...........  but how much of her income was
>> taken away?
> 
> 
>        
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