For the use of property, royalties are payments made to its owners. Many royalties are for the use of intellectual property (IP), such as copyrights, trademarks, and patents.
Continue reading to find out more about royalties, how they impact your taxes, and real-world examples
What are Royalties?
Royalties are payments that allow you to use another person’s property. licensing is where royalties are earned. This refers to the act of granting or getting permission for someone else’s creations or property.
This means that licensing is when you retain the ownership of property and receive royalties from another for the use of that property. Licensing your company’s intellectual property is a common way of increasing your business income. You can also get royalties from these licenses.
Although royalties can be found in many industries, they all serve the same purpose. These royalties can be granted through an agreement. They allow others to use the property and give the owner the opportunity to earn income. The buyer is protected from any claims of the owner for improper usage.
How royalties work
There are many ways to set royalty fees or payment amounts. In a franchise arrangement, fees could be fixed or variable percent of gross sales. There is often a minimum royalty. The following are some common forms of royalty payments
- Royalties for oil, natural gas, and mineral properties can be based either on revenue or units such as barrels or tons of oil.
For newly-created IP, a variable percentage is used. This is because sales are very low at the beginning so the royalty percentage may be lower. As sales rise, the royalty percentage may increase to a maximum.
Public licenses may attract some royalties. The Copyright Office collects royalties from:
- Retransmitting radio and TV broadcasts 2 by cable operators
- Satellite carriers transmit network and non-network signals to satellites
- Distributors or importers of digital audio recording products
Royalty Contracts
Each royalty payment has its benefits and drawbacks. As they make a contract, the owner of the property will discuss the details of royalty payments with potential buyers.
Although royalty contracts can be different depending on the type, there are certain common elements to all royalty contracts.
A contract will contain a description of the subject matter (the properties) and its owner. If you sell the right to use a set of images to Getty Images, for example, you will describe the images in detail (perhaps with a listing) and the next references to the images could simply refer to them as “the Images.”
The contract will outline the limits and scope of the use of the property. You might permit someone to use your images for a single time or allow them to use your images forever.
The contract will also include the payments (the royalties). This section should cover payments, including when they are due, how the amount is calculated, and how records will be kept. Sometimes, advance payment is made.
An “earn-out arrangement” could be included in the contract that bases royalties on the performance of the property being licensed. An advance is a common feature in an author contract. The author will receive additional royalties payments if the author’s share of royalties from book sales exceeds the advance.
Taxes
Royalties, like other forms of payments in a company, are taxable income as well as a business expense.
You can claim royalties received from another person for the use of your property. These payments must be claimed as business income on Schedule (Form 1040/SR) 1. Royalties from copyrights and patents as well as oil, gas, and mineral properties are taxable. Any royalties that you receive in any year are considered income.
These payments can be considered legitimate business expenses if you pay a royalty or licensing fees. If payments are made for the purchase or maintenance of the property, they will be considered assets on your company’s balance sheet. In this case, amortization might be required. To show the total amount of royalties paid in a given year, you will need to give the payee a 1099MISC form.
Types of royalties
Music owners who own copyrighted music are entitled to royalties. These royalties are known as performance royalty. This royalty can be paid if you wish to use a song in your movie or on your radio station.
Images may attract royalties if they are used on a website. A book royalty is another type of royalty that publishers pay authors for each book they sell.
A royalty will be paid to the owner of the patent if someone wishes to use or make a patented product.
Franchisees, like 7-Eleven convenience shops, pay franchise royalty to the main business for the use and enjoyment of the name and assets.
In the case of rights to extract minerals from another person’s property, royalties can also be paid. They are sometimes called mineral rights and not royalties. However, they function in the same way. The U.S. pays 12.5% of the production value to oil and gas producers for their onshore operations.
