Royalties and payments for US Office Agreements
Please note: The US Royalties Department manages royalties for authors who have signed publishing agreements with Oxford University Press (OUP)’s US office. Authors whose publishing agreements originated with other OUP offices should visit the UK Royalties or Canadian Royalties pages.
If you do not find the answer to your question relating to US royalties below, or if you have an issue with a lost or expired cheque, a 1099-MISC, or 1042-S form please contact the US Royalties Department.
Standard payment terms
The OUP policy is for royalty payments to be made by cheque or direct deposit to bank accounts in the eligible countries and currencies indicated on the Direct Deposit Form. Most of our authors receive their royalty payments twice per year, refer to your contract for payment terms.
Advances
Advances will be paid according to your publishing contract. When your title is published and starts earning royalties, these royalties will be deducted from the advance that you have already been paid, and any unearned balance of your advance will be shown clearly in your royalty statement. Once the total value of the advance has been earned, you will begin to receive royalty payments.
Sales figures
For information on sales figures for your book(s), please contact your editor directly. Sales fluctuate, so past performance should not be used as an indicator of anticipated royalty earnings.
Royalty statements
For security reasons, we do not routinely send royalty statements via email. Authors will receive their royalty statements by surface mail. Additional electronic versions are available in PDF format upon request. Please note that you’ll only receive a royalty payment if the total amount is above the minimum payment level on your royalty account. If the threshold is not reached, all royalties due will be carried forward to the following statement.
- Royalty period October to March: Your royalty earnings are calculated on royalty sales made between October 1st and March 31st. Direct deposit payments will be issued and royalty statements will be mailed on the first business day of July.
- Royalty period April to September: Your royalty earnings are calculated on royalty sales made between April 1st and September 30th. Direct deposit payments will be issued and royalty statements will be mailed on the first business day of January.
You will receive your royalty statement even if you do not receive a payment, unless your account is ‘on hold’ for any of the following reasons:
- All your titles are out of print or there were no transactions in the sales period
- You have not informed the Royalties Team of a change of postal address
- A previous royalty statement or payment has been returned to us
If your royalty statement has not arrived, please contact the US Royalties Department. Please note that delivery times can vary due to postal delays, so allow a few extra days for delivery before contacting us.
Upon request, the Royalties Department can provide such information as the amount of past payment and total payments over a tax year. For more information, please refer to our Royalty Statement Guide.
Designated bank account
As the contracted party, your name must be the account holder name on the bank account where OUP will deliver your payment. If you have any questions, please contact your editor.
To arrange for royalty payments to be made directly into a different bank account, please complete the bank form and send to the Royalty Department. For security reasons, we can’t make any changes to your account with bank details conveyed by telephone.
If you suspect that a payment may have been deposited to the wrong account, we ask that you first consult your bank because it may be possible to redirect the payment to the correct account, especially if it is held by the same bank. Before we can re-issue a payment, we must have confirmation from our bank that a payment has been rejected and returned. OUP is not responsible for misdirected payments if authors fail to notify us of changes to bank account details.
Delaying payments
Unfortunately, we can’t delay your royalty payment to help you defer tax liability.
Changes of address
If you wish to change your correspondence address, please contact the US Royalties Department. For security reasons, we can’t make any changes to your address details conveyed by telephone.
Deceased authors
Estate representatives of a deceased author should contact the Royalties Department for a list of the documentation we require to redirect royalty payments.
Contact information
To update your address, change bank details, or inquire about other matters related to royalties for a work published by OUP’s US operations, please contact the US Royalty Department.
Payment types
OUP’s US Royalty Department offers a choice of payment delivery types: cheque or direct deposit. We encourage you to select direct deposit, if possible (see the Direct Deposit Form for eligible countries and currencies). Direct deposit is safe and secure and provides quicker access to your royalty earnings. Please indicate your preferred method. Please note that direct deposits can take up to five working days to process.
Tax information
For US persons: Complete and sign the W-9 form and email it to the US Royalty Department or to your editor.
Foreign Authors (not US persons): If you earn income from your publication with our US operations, but are a not a US resident, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires that we withhold 30% from your royalty income for taxes. This amount may be reduced if your country of residence has a tax treaty with the US. To claim this benefit, you must provide your taxpayer identification number issued by your country of residence, which the IRS calls the Foreign Taxpayer Identification Number (FTIN). If you are unable to provide a FTIN, but wish to claim a tax treaty benefit, you can provide your Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) issued by the IRS. Please contact your editor if you need documents to apply for an ITIN.
Once you have your FTIN or ITIN, please access Form W-8BEN (Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding) via the link below. Please fill out lines 1-4, 5 or 6, 8-10, and sign it before returning it to the Royalty Department or your editor.
If you do not wish to provide a tax identification number, or your country of residence does not have a tax treaty with the US, please complete Part 1 of the W-8BEN, noting "No FTIN or ITIN, withhold 30%" on line 5, and sign/submit the form.
Royalty recipients who are not individuals (organizations, etc.) should instead complete Form W-8BEN-E (link below). To claim tax treaty benefits, you must provide either a Foreign Taxpayer Identification Number (FTIN) or an Employer Identification Number (EIN) issued by the IRS. Please contact your editor if you need documents to apply for an EIN.
- Tax Treaty Information
- Form W-8BEN
- Form W-8BEN Instructions
- Form W-8BEN-E
- Form W-8BEN-E Instructions
We send 1099 forms by surface mail each year at the end of January, which should arrive by the end of the first week of February. If you have not received yours in a timely fashion, please contact the US Royalty Department immediately and we will send you an electronic copy.
Understanding your royalty statement
Remittance advice
This section shows the amount OUP is paying you for the relevant accounting period, indicating the value of royalties from the statement summary (see below), withholding tax (if applicable), and details of any returned payments from earlier periods (e.g. if the bank account OUP paid into was closed).
Account Number
This is an internal reference number unique to your account. Please use this when contacting OUP so that we can quickly trace your payment details.
Royalty statement
Your royalty statement comes in two parts – summary and detail. Each is explained separately below. Your statement is further broken down by contracts – these refer to specific author contract(s) you have with OUP. One contract may cover multiple formats of the same book.
Please note: the statement will only list contracts that had transactions (e.g. sales or returns) in the current accounting period, or those that have unrecouped amounts from previous periods. The statement detail pages provide more information on the owed amounts by contract.
Statement summary
This is a summary of the royalty amount OUP is paying to you for the relevant period.
Period
This shows the accounting period covered by the statement.
Royalties this period
‘Total payable this period’ is the amount that will show on the remittance advice (see above).
Summary
The amount due to you is shown, broken down by contract, each assigned a unique Reference number that should be used in correspondence with OUP. The individual works covered by each contract are described. The detailed calculations behind each contract’s ‘amount due’ can be found under the Statement detail section (see below).
- Recouped refers to negative amounts from advances, costs, or returns in previous accounting periods which have been deducted from your earnings in this period.
- Carried forward refers to negative amounts from returns incurred in the current period, which are shown here for information only–these amounts are NOT included in the Total payable this period. These amounts will be recouped from your earnings in future accounting periods.
Statement detail
This section provides detail on how your payable royalties have been calculated. If there are several titles, these are divided by a grey line showing the title description. These titles are grouped by contract and show a ‘Subtotal’ for each title, matching the figures on the summary. There is a grey summary box showing the contract reference number and the amount 'Payable this period' for all titles on that contract.
Detail by title
- Name and ISBN: Title and identifier of the published work
- Format: Published format
- Pub Date: Publication date, by specified format
- Life Sales: Total quantity sold to date (not just in this statement period), specified by edition and format, net of returns
- Market/Channel: Territories where sold
- RTY Type: Basis for calculating royalties (NR = Net Receipts, PP = Published Price)
- Net Qty: Quantity sold during current period, net of returns
- Base Value: Sales value realized in the period on which you are entitled to royalties
- Rate: Percentage rate for calculation of royalties
- Royalty: Royalty earnings in that market (equals percentage rate of Base Value, unless on a per copy basis). There may be more than one rate shown if rising rates apply – please see your contract for more information
- Subsidiary income royalties [if relevant]
- Type: Licensing rights type granted
- Customer: Customer to whom we have granted licensing rights
- Base Value: Sum received from the customer
- Rate: % rate for calculation of subsidiary (rights licensing) income
- Royalty: Royalty payable for rights type
- Subtotal: Royalties earned across all markets for a specific title. This total is transferred to the Statement summary
- Advances/costs/returns opening balance (if relevant): Negative amount from advances, costs, or returns incurred in earlier periods that are deducted from earnings this period
- Payable this period: Amount payable per contract
- Advances/costs/returns still to be recouped (if relevant): Total of any advances, costs, or negative royalties (from returns) that are unearned and will be recouped against future earnings
