Need help with registering with ASCAP non-US musician

[lcraciun]

Hello everyone,

I am Liviu, a musician from Romania and would like to register with ASCAP for collecting US Royalties for my music. I got to the point where they ask me to fill a W8-BEN Form and I need some help with regards to filling the Part II (tax treaties). I see that US has some kind of tax treaty with Romania: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/internat ... -documents

What I didn't clearly understand is under which Article does the income from Royalties fall? Is it Article 12 (Cultural Royalties) or Article 7 (Business Profits)? Not sure what to put in the form under 10. Special Rates and Conditions.

From what I read Royalties are categorized into: cultural, and Industrial. Refer Article 12 (para 3) for the definitions of the two. Based on how my music will be used, the tax withholding could be either 10% (for cultural) or 15% (for industrial).

Another point that I'd like to make is that in Article 12 (para 4) it indicates that this type of income may also fall under Article 7 (Business Profits) depending on Permanent Establishment, which would mean zero tax withholding.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Liviu

[Stickman0_3]

Hi

I am in the UK and I'm a member of the PRS. I seem to have read somewhere that you cannot register with ASCAP if you are outside the US. However, I can instruct the PRS to collect from ASCAP on my behalf. Maybe someone else on here can shed some light on this?