Follow this topic
Q&A » Tax
I mean you maintain the copyright yourself but licence it to a publisher. The publisher then publishes your work under licence. You get royalties.
Report
410I am not a tax expert. But as you still own the asset and are effectively just renting it out, I would have thought that should be income tax.
manzanilla
Posted on 14 October 2009 |
Love 0 loves
Report
824Mike10613
You do not actually sell a license. You issue a license and the exercise of that license by someone else provides you with an income from that asset.
As such, it should be income tax as Manzanilla said.
The only person who might be able to sell a license would be a licensee, provided that the license that he already had allowed assignability.
Mike
Posted on 14 October 2009 | Love 0 loves
Report
416I've researched this again and I'm still not certain of the answer. It appears that like shares if you sell them and make a gain, it is a capital gain. If you sell a copyright it is a capital gain. If you receive dividends from shares, it's income and income tax is deducted at source; it appears normally with royalties the same applies; and income is deducted at source by the publisher (or equivalent). However, if you own shares and you sell some of them but not all; it is still a capital gain. If you own a copyright and you sell some of the rights, it is still a capital gain. It would therefore take a tax expert to give a definitive answer. The case I'm researching also will probably involve an overseas publisher who wouldn't deduct tax at source. I think the probable answer to the question, if there is one; would depend upon the contract between the author and the publisher and the terms of that contract.
Thanks for trying to answer the question anyway. It is an interesting subject and one that I think many people are interested in now that e-Books are becoming more popular and a bigger choice of copyrighted material is becoming available all the time. Having researched the publication process it often means copyrighting a website too and that further complicates the issue; although any revenue from a website would almost certainly be income. I was pleased today to see a e-Book designed by a British company is about to be launched in the UK and that will be a step forward not only for authors but for readers and education.
Posted on 14 October 2009 | Love 0 loves
Report
27it is income tax, and the reason is the occupation.. For example, you, as an individual, have a batch of shares and sell them later in life for a large gain, you are deemed to have made a capital gain and therefore pay CGT. However, if you are a trader, you may make gains like this on a weekly, even hourly basis!! therefore, this is classed as your occupation and as such is liable to Income tax..
it gets controversion when you are into the realms of private equity etc but in a nutshell, it is income tax and not CGT. Hope that helps
Posted on 21 October 2009 | Love 0 loves
Report
Sign in or register to post an answer.
Register with lovemoney.com to start asking and answering questions on Q&A.
Get started nowRegistered already? Great! You can just sign in to ask and answer questions.
Sign in
Retweet
Comments (
Facebook