How (where) do I report my SAG-AFTRA income received as earnings type "SAG-AFTRA Foreign Royalty"?

How was the foreign royalty earnings reported to you?

Hi -- The only paper I have from Media Services is a check stub, attached to the check that I received in June, showing my $29 foreign royalty.  There were no deductions.

I emailed Media Services asking for a W-2, but have received no response.  I'm wondering if a W-2 is even appropriate for this kind of income.

I'm an actor, so this royalty is not for something like oil ... it's probably for a screening or broadcast of something that I was in years ago.  Thank you!

Thanks for the info.

Thank YOU for your response to me.  I appreciate it.

More than a pleasure. Let me know if you get lost.

When it comes to taxes, even with TurboTax, I sometimes do get lost.  But your recommendation is logical, and simple even.  Thank you so very much!

Thanks! Good Luck or Break a leg, whichever is the appropriate term.

SAG-AFTRA Foreign royalties are not residuals and are collected as a result of laws in other countries, which were adopted in the 1980s. Those laws provide for payments to artists in audiovisual works to compensate for private copying (home taping), cable retransmissions, video rentals and other uses of such works.

I'm pretty sure I understand your answer to do this for my foreign royalties: I was confused because the first three quarters of this year like the past five years for the royalties from this project I was receiving a W-2 for it (incl. Receiving a W-2 for the first three quarters of 2020 from WB), but strangely, it was only foreign royalties for the fourth quarter of 2020 which were then taken over for the fourth quarter by Media Services instead of WB... the fourth quarter happened to only be foreign royalties so is this the reason that is the first time of my working as a professional actor under Union contracts in the USA that I didn't receive a W-2? All other television networks, movies, Etc., have always sent me a W-2 and all the work we do under Screen Actors Guild contracts come under W-2 as all those producers are included as part of our being employees and not independent workers!?

Is this case solely because it is foreign royalties?

@CallMeCooper Many types of income are reported as 'Other Income' if not reported on a W-2 or 1099 form. 

Click this link for more info on Foreign Royalty Income. 

Strange... My question was the reason I've NEVER before received this as a 1099 because it was SOLELY Foreign Royalties?!  There have always been foreign income from Royalties/Residuals, but MAYBE since there was previously BOTH, then WB combined it all, no matter what they taxed or didn't tax.

I understand how to report this but this way it becomes Schedule C income when the work was under an employer and only the payroll company changed.  This way, it becomes Self-Employment income and will confuse those who gauge my income as Self-Employment for a negligible & random $18 for One Quarter, after 6 years on one TV Episode, foreign royalty.

BINGO - Bango - BONGO - Double Thumbs UP!!!

MichaelDC, When it comes to Employee Income from SAG,

you win the prize cuz it is NOT Self-Employment income.

You actually read the question and answered where it

causes the least harm or paperwork!!!

Thanks

Coop

Okay, but help.

My wage and income records show that for 2020, I received a 1099-Misc for Foreign Royalties.

So, I'm reporting these foreign royalties as being from 1099-Misc.

I didn't pay any taxes on this money.

Turbo Tax keeps asking me if all/none/any of this work took place in the united states.

All of the filming took place in the US, but these are foreign royalties, so how am I supposed to answer?

It's very easy... NONE because none of it was shot outside of the US. But you did receive a 1099 so you have to report it as 1099 income and will have to do a Schedule C as it is then self-employment income.

Or if you have no other self-employment income, you could follow the winning answer by DC Michael on the previous page and escape all the other work, since that is where you report foreign royalties in "other income". 

Since this was listed as the Best Answer in this thread, I'm replying both to add information that I hope will clarify the problem and to ask if anyone has a more thorough answer that takes this new information into consideration.

The work that generates these foreign royalties is originally paid as wages and reported on a W-2, as actors are considered employees of the production company for the purpose of the project. Domestic residuals are also paid as wages and reported on form W-2.

As explained on SAG-AFTRA's website, foreign royalties are not residuals.  When I receive them, they're usually paid by a different payroll company than the one that sends my residuals for the same production.  Taxes are never withheld from these payments. In any given tax year, the payroll company that handles my foreign royalties will sometimes issue a 1099-MISC and sometimes will not issue any tax form at all. If they issue a 1099, the amount earned will be listed in Box 2: Royalties.

If I don't receive a tax form, the simplest solution seems to be to claim it as Other Income. If I receive a 1099-MISC, however, then there's a dilemma. It's not truly self-employment income because I earned it for work performed as an employee, so Schedule C doesn't seem appropriate. How else can it be claimed, though, if it has been reported on a 1099-MISC?

Supposing I do let TurboTax create a Schedule C for this income, then it asks me, "Is this Qualified Business Income?" In order to be considered QBI, it must meet two requirements:

• The business is operated in the United States

   — It's not really a business, so this is already a difficult question to answer, but since the work was performed in the United States, let's go with "Yes."

• The income is not treated as wages by the IRS

   — This one is much trickier. Whether pay is considered wages seems to depend mostly on the worker's relationship to the employer over the past three years. Since an actor performs work for a very short period but continues to receive payments for that work for potentially years, has the working relationship changed after three years or not? If all the other payments for the same work were initially considered wages and are still considered wages when paid in the form of domestic residuals, are the royalty payments substantially different just because they're not considered residuals? Would the IRS consider them wages or not?

This issue has existed for so long that someone in the entertainment industry should really have figured this out by now and made the information widely available to actors. Hopefully, a tax expert here can provide a detailed and reliable solution for actors that receive foreign royalty payments, both with and without a form 1099-MISC.

If it really bothers you, contact Media Services, do not mention that you should have gotten a W-2 as they are foreign royalties and will come on a 1099-Misc. Once you have that form then follow your supposition to report it as 1099 income and do a Schedule C since you didn't want to take on the advice multiple experts have weighed in during this conversation over 4 to 5 years!

Otherwise, legally you can actually do a or b. Consider that you don't have any other self-employment income, why would you go through the whole schedule C, BS, unless you have other significant foreign royalty income where you want to take business deductions, especially since the Trump tax changes stopped actors from being able to use deductions with their W-2 income!

As long as you legally report it, you can do either way as I described above and linked to the previous person's answer. I've been doing actor taxes since I returned to the US in 2001 & I use TurboTax premier. Even they have me down as zero red flags and, it's all legal.

I've been looking in on this question & answers in different locations on the web for years. There is no other answer that anyone else's given. Period. Stop. The End, Yay!