End of Year Payment 

This year’s international payments do not include remuneration from Germany, as SAMI has not yet received any payments from the German organisation GVL. This delay is due to significant backlogs at the German tax authority in processing tax forms that are required to avoid taxation of the remuneration in Germany.  SAMI is monitoring the situation through GVL and will process the payments as soon as the issue is resolved and the revenue has been paid through to SAMI.

SAMI’s December payment normally would also include certain Swedish remuneration that could not be paid out earlier in the year due to, for example, incomplete performer line-up information. However, due to a recent EU court ruling (C-179/23) which means that certain administrative fees (i.e., the fee SAMI charges for collecting your remuneration) must be subject to VAT, SAMI has postponed the payment of Swedish remuneration. We are working intensively to develop our system to be able to handle this VAT reporting so that the payment of Swedish renumeration can resume shortly.

 

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More about the VAT issue

Due to a recent EU ruling (C-179/23), you will need to pay VAT on certain administrative costs – i.e. the deductions made from your remuneration to cover SAMI:s costs for fee that SAMI charges to collecting collect your remuneration. At SAMI we are working intensively to analyse the ruling and develop methods to handle VAT reporting. For instance, our IT systems need to be adapted to calculate and display the VAT. Consequently, we will postpone the payments of all Swedish remuneration until these issues are resolved. The December payment therefore only consists of remuneration from our sister organisations abroad.

The timing of this judgment is unfortunate, as SAMI has a substantial amount of Private Copy Remuneration to disburse. We are keen to pay out as much as possible, as swiftly as possible. However, we do not want to risk having to correct large payments retroactively. We are therefore working at full speed to resolve the issue and rebuild our distribution systems to calculate and manage the VAT accurately. Our goal is to get it right from the start and avoid future corrections.

Three quick questions for SAMI’s CEO, Stefan Lagrell: 

• Why has the EU suddenly introduced VAT requirements?
  It is a judgment in the European Court of Justice that has brought this issue to the forefront, and Sweden must comply. The ruling means that SAMI needs to add VAT to certain administrative costs.
• What is taking so long to handle VAT on administrative costs? What needs to be done?
  SAMI needs to rebuild part of the core IT system that calculates the distribution of remuneration to members. It is crucial that we get it right to avoid any mistakes. However, we do not want to postpone the payments any longer than necessary and the correction of our IT systems is now a top priority.
• What would you like to say to the members who are concerned about the postponed payments?
  We are prioritising this issue and working to resolve it as soon as possible so that we can resume normal payments.

SAMI would like to thank you for your patience and understanding. We are doing everything we can to protect your interests and avoid anyone getting into a difficult financial situation. If you have questions or concerns, please contact our Member Service – we are here to help.