Frequently asked questions - international affairs
How can I claim remuneration for usage abroad? What should I do? And from which countries do I receive payments? You will find answers to these and other frequently asked questions here. Do you still have a question? No problem, contact our international team.
We explained the process in four steps here.
GVL exchanges information on repertoire used abroad in a standardised process. Your contribution registration in our Online Portal meine.gvl forms the basis for this data exchange with sister societies abroad so that we can establish claims on your behalf with them. In cases where you cannot find a production used abroad in meine.gvl you can notify us about this via e-mail to international@gvl.de. We also recommend to submit notifications for productions for which there are several entries in our database as the spelling of productions can differ from those abroad.
The countries and years for which we establish your entitlements depends on the representation agreements in force and the scope of rights you granted us. If you are unsure about this, please get in touch. You can access the respective form under Documents and Forms.
GVL is always interested to push international exchange of remuneration forward on behalf of its rights holders and therefore holds regular contractual negotiations with other collective management organisations and music licensing companies. This process depends on various analyses of the markets and requires that domestic and foreign legal conditions actually allow a contractual arrangement. We welcome your suggestions via international@gvl.de.
GVL always recommends that you submit your contribution notifications soon after the broadcast details have been released. Since the deadlines differ from organisation to organisation, we cannot give you a specific date at this point.
Just like GVL, collective management organisations and music licensing companies abroad act on the basis of their own distribution rules, where broadcasters, usage categories and other features are set out. GVL has no influence on these rules.
The planned payouts of the respective year can be viewed in the current distribution schedule here. As a rule, GVL pays out quarterly.
Yes. It is, however, important to consider that there is no overlap in terms of which rights you assign to each of them. It is, for example, not possible to grant a global mandate to two CMOs or MLCs simultaneously.
The tax authorities in the USA usually deduct the US withholding tax of currently 30%. This also applies to remuneration which is passed on to GVL as a fiduciary trustee and then passed on by us to GVL rights holders.
Despite intensive efforts, GVL has not received a so-called Qualified Intermediary (QI) status yet which would have spared our rights holders from being subject to individual tax exemption procedures. In this context, we would like to refer to the following procedure:
Every non-US citizen has, in principle, the option to request an individual tax relief/tax exemption for the US withholding tax from the US Federal tax authorities, the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) in the USA. For this, the IRS must receive a hardcopy of the so-called W-8 forms once they have been completed, dated and signed in person.
Each group requires a corresponding form:
Natural persons (usually individual performers) require the tax form W-8BEN. For this purpose, the German tax identification number (tax ID) is absolutely mandatory, it is, however, not necessary to indicate a US tax number for private persons (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, ITIN).
For corporate entities (such as AG, eG, GmbH, KGaA and communities of heirs) the tax form W-8BEN-E is applicable. In this case, it is absolutely mandatory to submit the German tax number or the US tax number (EIN).
For private companies (AG & Co. KG, GbR, GmbH & Co. KG, KG, OHG), the tax form W-8IMY shall apply. In this context, it is absolutely mandatory to submit the US tax number (EIN). Since private companies in the USA are also deemed as transparent partnerships from a tax point of view, all partners or shareholders of the private company must also complete the tax forms W-8BEN-E or W-8BEN with all the relevant requirements.
Please click here for further information. Please understand that GVL cannot provide any further advice on this matter. We recommend that you consult an expert if you have any further questions.
We explained the process in four steps here.
GVL exchanges information on repertoire used abroad in a standardised process. Your contribution registration in our Online Portal meine.gvl forms the basis for this data exchange with sister societies abroad so that we can establish claims on your behalf with them. IIn cases where you cannot find a production used abroad in meine.gvl you can notify us about this via e-mail to international@gvl.de. We also recommend to submit notifications for productions for which there are several entries in our database as the spelling of productions can differ from those abroad.
The countries and years for which we establish your entitlements depends on the representation agreements in force and the scope of rights you granted us. If you are unsure about this, please get in touch. You can access the respective form under Documents and Forms.
GVL is always interested to push international exchange of remuneration forward on behalf of its rights holders and therefore holds regular contractual negotiations with other collective management organisations and music licensing companies. This process depends on various analyses of the markets and requires that domestic and foreign legal conditions actually allow a contractual arrangement. We welcome your suggestions via international@gvl.de.
GVL always recommends that you submit your contribution notifications soon after the broadcast details have been released. Since the deadlines differ from organisation to organisation, we cannot give you a specific date at this point.
Just like GVL, collective management organisations and music licensing companies abroad act on the basis of their own distribution rules, where broadcasters, usage categories and other features are set out. GVL has no influence on these rules.
The planned payouts of the respective year can be viewed in the current distribution schedule here. As a rule, GVL pays out quarterly.
Yes. It is, however, important to consider that there is no overlap in terms of which rights you assign to each of them. It is, for example, not possible to grant a global mandate to two CMOs or MLCs simultaneously.
The tax authorities in the USA usually deduct the US withholding tax of currently 30%. This also applies to remuneration which is passed on to GVL as a fiduciary trustee and then passed on by us to GVL rights holders.
Despite intensive efforts, GVL has not received a so-called Qualified Intermediary (QI) status yet which would have spared our rights holders from being subject to individual tax exemption procedures. In this context, we would like to refer to the following procedure:
Every non-US citizen has, in principle, the option to request an individual tax relief/tax exemption for the US withholding tax from the US Federal tax authorities, the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) in the USA. For this, the IRS must receive a hardcopy of the so-called W-8 forms once they have been completed, dated and signed in person.
Each group requires a corresponding form:
Natural persons (usually individual performers) require the tax form W-8BEN. For this purpose, the German tax identification number (tax ID) is absolutely mandatory, it is, however, not necessary to indicate a US tax number for private persons (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, ITIN).
For corporate entities (such as AG, eG, GmbH, KGaA and communities of heirs) the tax form W-8BEN-E is applicable. In this case, it is absolutely mandatory to submit the German tax number or the US tax number (EIN).
For private companies (AG & Co. KG, GbR, GmbH & Co. KG, KG, OHG), the tax form W-8IMY shall apply. In this context, it is absolutely mandatory to submit the US tax number (EIN). Since private companies in the USA are also deemed as transparent partnerships from a tax point of view, all partners or shareholders of the private company must also complete the tax forms W-8BEN-E or W-8BEN with all the relevant requirements.
Please click here for further information. Please understand that GVL cannot provide any further advice on this matter. We recommend that you consult an expert if you have any further questions.