Your distribution questions answered

Why haven’t I been paid?

Payments aren’t guaranteed and if you haven’t yet received an email from us about your statement, you haven’t been paid this time. The money we pay out in September is predominantly for retransmissions of audiovisual work, photocopying of books in the education and government sectors, and payments for visual contributions. This is the smaller of the two distributions, and most members only receive a payment in March. If you are owed royalties for other types of work, you can expect payment in our next distribution in March 2025.

Payments to international bank accounts may take longer to arrive. The amount of time taken depends on a number of factors, including location, so if you don’t have a UK bank account and are waiting to receive a payment, please allow more time.

How can I view my statement?

If you were due a payment in this distribution, you will have received an email letting you know that you can download your statement.

You will find your statement in your account in the folder marked ‘2024-2025’.

You can then either:

• download it or
• click to have it emailed to you as a PDF.

1. To download your statement in PDF format, click on Request Statement Download.
2. When your statement is ready for download, the message will change to Download Statement.
3. Click on Download Statement and your statement will download (most likely to your computer downloads folder).
4. Alternatively, click the option that emails your statement over to you.

Are my payments taxed?

If you are tax resident in the UK, we don’t deduct income tax from your payments. This means you should declare any payments you receive from ALCS on your Self-Assessment tax return.

However, some international collective management organisations have already deducted tax before sending the money to us. These organisations are:

• DAMA (Spain)
• REDES (Colombia)
• Screenrights (Australia)
• SGAE (Spain)

If you have received income from these societies, you have already paid tax on it. You should make a note of this in your UK tax returns.

If you live (and are tax resident) outside of the UK, we are obliged to withhold UK tax at the current rate of 20% (on UK-sourced royalties only). If you believe you’re exempt from withholding tax, you need to contact HMRC who will issue a certificate of exemption. Tax deductions will then no longer be applied to payments you receive from us.

As tax is such a complex subject, we are not able to provide bespoke advice on an individual basis. If you have questions or concerns, you should speak to an accountant or tax advisor.

Where does the money come from?

We collect money for writers from over 100 sources around the world where your books, scripts, articles or visual contributions are being used.

For a brief explanation of our biggest sources of income, watch the video below or read this article. You can also find a full list of the income sources for this distribution here.