[Fmpro] ASCAP & Taxes

[Mark Northam]

I wonder how many people realize that the amounts on their statements for
incoming foreign royalties are NOT what ASCAP received for payment to them
and that amounts not disclosed on their statements are being deducted from
every payment that comes in for members! Hard to request information when
you don't know it's being hidden from you.

I'll bet if you did a poll of ASCAP members (especially those not on the
FMPRO list!), the vast majority believe that the amounts showing on their
statements are the amounts paid to ASCAP on their behalf. I also believe
that they would choose to see all the numbers on their statements, not just
the "final amount" of incoming foreign royalties after ASCAP deducted
whatever charges they deem appropriate. It's ludicrous to think that members
would actually choose to have ASCAP (or any other financial organization)
hide their fees from them.

Obviously ASCAP already has this information (the gross amounts received
from foreign societies to be paid to its members), as it has to take it's
deductions from this. To me, it's a choice on ASCAP's part to show this
information to members or not on the statements. It's one more column,
that's all. 

Like I said before, no bank or financial institution would ever get away
with this level of non-disclosure on customer statements. But I can hardly
blame ASCAP. After all, if it doesn't disclose the amount of fees it charges
on statements and makes it impossible to confirm those amounts with third
parties (the foreign PROs), it sure cuts down on those pesky member
complaints.

MN

On 6/3/07 10:59 PM, "Pete" <musical411 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I wonder how many people request that data from ASCAP.
> I wonder how much it would cost to compile and report
> that data. I wonder how many people would be willing
> to pay for that data. Not that it's not do-able, but
> everything costs money.
> 
> P e t e
> S u r d o v a l