MicrostockGroup
Agency Based Discussion => Alamy.com => Topic started by: ruigsantos on August 01, 2014, 05:48
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Just got an email saying
We believe you're owed additional money based on a selection of your UK sales. There are 5 licences you can claim for.
The funds are available using the DACS payback scheme. As you're based outside the UK, you can't claim directly but the good news is that we can claim on your behalf. We'll take care of all the paperwork and make the claim for you. We expect the funds to be paid out in December but don't know the value of these yet. We'll cover our costs and then we'll split the remaining funds with you (50/50). Your Alamy account will be credited in the usual way.
If you're happy for us to claim on your behalf we need your permission. Please sign and complete this form.
Please return it to us as soon as possible - no later than Sept 1st 2014. Either email a digital copy to [email protected]
Remember, without this signed document we can't claim on your behalf.
Do anyone know what this is about? Anyone's familiar with the DACS payback scheme and can tell me what kind of money are we talking about?
Regards
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Do anyone know what this is about? Anyone's familiar with the DACS payback scheme and can tell me what kind of money are we talking about?
It's the first time I got it from Alamy, but I know it from a different agency. You can read about it here:
http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback (http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback)
I don't remember how much money it was (obviously not that much), but it will depend on how many licenses you sold at what price in the UK. It's additional income for licenses already sold, so why not take it?
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should be at least £25 :)
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should be at least £25 :)
Remember about 50/50 :)
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I got a similar email too but for a different number of licences. And as I am outside the UK I have to fill in the form etc.
There is a thread about this on the Alamy forum which I am going to read before I click on anything. Some say it is better to claim directly. But I expect I will have Alamy do it for me anyhow.
http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/2767-dacs-claim/ (http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/2767-dacs-claim/)
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I got it too for 29 licenses. So I am going to do it. I don't have the time to chase this myself. Tomorrow is my first official day back shooting after almost a year off managing my mothers death and dealing through blood * lawyers via greedy family members. trust closed, I am freed up to shoot. wooooyay.
Now, with my luck these will be 29 $1 downloads. :'(
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Tomorrow is my first official day back shooting after almost a year off managing my mothers death and dealing through blood * lawyers via greedy family members. trust closed, I am freed up to shoot.
I hope you have bright days ahead!
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Does it cost me anything?
There is no cost to register with us, but we do retain a share of the royalties we collect to cover our costs. In 2007, those costs were 25%. In 2014, they represented just 18% of royalties collected on your behalf. As a not-for-profit organisation, we are always seeking ways to reduce that percentage.
http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/frequently-asked-questions (http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/frequently-asked-questions)
Does anyone knows anything about this ?
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So, DACS collects the money and cover costs, alamy claims the money and covers costs, then we receive 50% of the rest, right?
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So, DACS collects the money and cover costs, alamy claims the money and covers costs, then we receive 50% of the rest, right?
That's how I understand it. What I don't know is whether they are going after damages for copyright violation or license violation that net us more per image......or do they just go after what the delta would have been for the purchase price.
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After the second Alamy message, I went to the DACS web site to see how to file a claim. The problem is that you need proof of where and how your image was used. Alamy only said how many images you could claim for, not which ones or how to find the proof. The problem is that once DACS takes their 18% and you split the remaining part 50% with Alamy we are getting 41 cents on every dollar. I'd rather file myself but without knowing which image is eligible and where it appeared that is near impossible - which I'm sure Alamy is well aware of. If it was a low-value sale it's hardly worth bothering about, but if it was one for $200 then maybe. I wish Alamy would provide us with the image info so we could do this ourselves, but it could be quite a lot of money for them over all photographers so I'm sure they would rather keep their 50%. I don't have time to search for other uses of every image I sold on Alamy so will most likely just go through them.
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After the second Alamy message, I went to the DACS web site to see how to file a claim. The problem is that you need proof of where and how your image was used. Alamy only said how many images you could claim for, not which ones or how to find the proof. The problem is that once DACS takes their 18% and you split the remaining part 50% with Alamy we are getting 41 cents on every dollar. I'd rather file myself but without knowing which image is eligible and where it appeared that is near impossible - which I'm sure Alamy is well aware of. If it was a low-value sale it's hardly worth bothering about, but if it was one for $200 then maybe. I wish Alamy would provide us with the image info so we could do this ourselves, but it could be quite a lot of money for them over all photographers so I'm sure they would rather keep their 50%. I don't have time to search for other uses of every image I sold on Alamy so will most likely just go through them.
I just emailed alamy to ask this exact question. Do they provide me with the essential details? How do I know what to input in dacs without detailed from you?
Let's see what they say.
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Here's my take- why heck doesn't Alamy do this for us! It's their company and business and take we have to do the leg work? They already take 50% from us and now this crap!
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Here's my take- why heck doesn't Alamy do this for us! It's their company and business and take we have to do the leg work? They already take 50% from us and now this crap!
Yup.
I'm guessing the reason Alamy doesn't pursue this is that it's a lot of work for very little money. So this DACS thing (which I don't pretend to understand) is a way of pushing that work off onto us.
In other words it's just like microstock itself - we jump through the hoops and the middlemen end up with the money.
Or maybe I have this all wrong. But the email was pretty vague so I'm not inclined to spend any time trying to figure this out.
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I got this email too and have been wondering what DACS is all about and whether there's a downside to filling the form. Lucky I caught this thread
:)
Guess the only viable option is to fill the form they sent .. and dream about forthcoming riches
;D
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From DACS
Many thanks for getting in touch,
Each year we collect royalties to distribute to artists who have work published in UK books with ISBN numbers and UK magazines with ISSN/Barcode numbers and who continue to own the copyright to their works published. We collect royalties for works published up until the end of the previous year so this year works eligible for Payback must have been published before December 31st 2013. You can continue to make a claim each year for your works published in books and magazines as long as you continue to own the copyright to those images.
For more information about Payback, how it works and to read some answers to frequently asked questions, you can visit our website here: http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/in-detail. (http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/in-detail.)
With regards to making a claim, you could authorise Alamy to make a claim on your behalf but if you would instead like to make a direct claim via our website, you can reach the Payback log-in page by visiting the DACS website at http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback (http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback) and clicking Apply Now and create a new account unless you already claim Payback with DACS.
Before making a claim you'll just need to know how many books and magazines feature your work and how many images of yours have been included in all of these books and magazines put together. The number of works of yours which have featured in these UK publications can be identified via your Alamy statement.
We do also ask for ISBN numbers, titles and publication dates of three books to verify a claim for works published in books and three ISSN/Barcode numbers, titles and publication dates / issue numbers to verify a claim for magazines (fewer if you are making a claim for only one or two books or magazines).
However if you don't have access to this information, you can enter "Alamy Claim 2013" into the verification fields of your publication claim and forward a copy of your Alamy sales report to us at [email protected] which we can use to validate your Payback claim."
End of quote :)
You just download your sales from Alamy as a CSV file and forward it to DACS once you have registered.
That way you don't have to pay the commission to Alamy :)
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Here's my take- why heck doesn't Alamy do this for us! It's their company and business and take we have to do the leg work? They already take 50% from us and now this crap!
Because DACS is nothing to do with Alamy.
Alamy are good enough to let contributors know about the scheme.
The scheme allows artists to obtain a share of an independent fund to cover secondary royalties i.e. a teacher photocopies a page in a book for a class and that page has a photo in it.
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what i understand from the letter is you can forward your sales report if you want to claim certain images. But you still need a lot of resource to support your claim.
I don't think DACS will look for those usages of your alamy sales report and made a claim for you.
it seems alamy stated of numbers of images you may be able to claim for individual contributors. But it is a little bit confusing that alamy advise us to contact with DACS which we have no information of those alamy sales (who bought it and where it is used).
a little bit confused.
From DACS
Many thanks for getting in touch,
Each year we collect royalties to distribute to artists who have work published in UK books with ISBN numbers and UK magazines with ISSN/Barcode numbers and who continue to own the copyright to their works published. We collect royalties for works published up until the end of the previous year so this year works eligible for Payback must have been published before December 31st 2013. You can continue to make a claim each year for your works published in books and magazines as long as you continue to own the copyright to those images.
For more information about Payback, how it works and to read some answers to frequently asked questions, you can visit our website here: [url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/in-detail.[/url] ([url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/in-detail.[/url])
With regards to making a claim, you could authorise Alamy to make a claim on your behalf but if you would instead like to make a direct claim via our website, you can reach the Payback log-in page by visiting the DACS website at [url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback[/url] ([url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback[/url]) and clicking Apply Now and create a new account unless you already claim Payback with DACS.
Before making a claim you'll just need to know how many books and magazines feature your work and how many images of yours have been included in all of these books and magazines put together. The number of works of yours which have featured in these UK publications can be identified via your Alamy statement.
We do also ask for ISBN numbers, titles and publication dates of three books to verify a claim for works published in books and three ISSN/Barcode numbers, titles and publication dates / issue numbers to verify a claim for magazines (fewer if you are making a claim for only one or two books or magazines).
However if you don't have access to this information, you can enter "Alamy Claim 2013" into the verification fields of your publication claim and forward a copy of your Alamy sales report to us at [email protected] which we can use to validate your Payback claim."
End of quote :)
You just download your sales from Alamy as a CSV file and forward it to DACS once you have registered.
That way you don't have to pay the commission to Alamy :)
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what i understand from the letter is you can forward your sales report if you want to claim certain images. But you still need a lot of resource to support your claim.
I don't think DACS will look for those usages of your alamy sales report and made a claim for you.
it seems alamy stated of numbers of images you may be able to claim for individual contributors. But it is a little bit confusing that alamy advise us to contact with DACS which we have no information of those alamy sales (who bought it and where it is used).
a little bit confused.
From DACS
Many thanks for getting in touch,
Each year we collect royalties to distribute to artists who have work published in UK books with ISBN numbers and UK magazines with ISSN/Barcode numbers and who continue to own the copyright to their works published. We collect royalties for works published up until the end of the previous year so this year works eligible for Payback must have been published before December 31st 2013. You can continue to make a claim each year for your works published in books and magazines as long as you continue to own the copyright to those images.
For more information about Payback, how it works and to read some answers to frequently asked questions, you can visit our website here: [url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/in-detail.[/url] ([url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/in-detail.[/url])
With regards to making a claim, you could authorise Alamy to make a claim on your behalf but if you would instead like to make a direct claim via our website, you can reach the Payback log-in page by visiting the DACS website at [url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback[/url] ([url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback[/url]) and clicking Apply Now and create a new account unless you already claim Payback with DACS.
Before making a claim you'll just need to know how many books and magazines feature your work and how many images of yours have been included in all of these books and magazines put together. The number of works of yours which have featured in these UK publications can be identified via your Alamy statement.
We do also ask for ISBN numbers, titles and publication dates of three books to verify a claim for works published in books and three ISSN/Barcode numbers, titles and publication dates / issue numbers to verify a claim for magazines (fewer if you are making a claim for only one or two books or magazines).
However if you don't have access to this information, you can enter "Alamy Claim 2013" into the verification fields of your publication claim and forward a copy of your Alamy sales report to us at [email protected] which we can use to validate your Payback claim."
End of quote :)
You just download your sales from Alamy as a CSV file and forward it to DACS once you have registered.
That way you don't have to pay the commission to Alamy :)
Errrr no You don't DACS are quite clear the Alamy Sales report is all you need and you email it to them.
It's not complex at all
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what i understand from the letter is you can forward your sales report if you want to claim certain images. But you still need a lot of resource to support your claim.
I don't think DACS will look for those usages of your alamy sales report and made a claim for you.
it seems alamy stated of numbers of images you may be able to claim for individual contributors. But it is a little bit confusing that alamy advise us to contact with DACS which we have no information of those alamy sales (who bought it and where it is used).
a little bit confused.
From DACS
Many thanks for getting in touch,
Each year we collect royalties to distribute to artists who have work published in UK books with ISBN numbers and UK magazines with ISSN/Barcode numbers and who continue to own the copyright to their works published. We collect royalties for works published up until the end of the previous year so this year works eligible for Payback must have been published before December 31st 2013. You can continue to make a claim each year for your works published in books and magazines as long as you continue to own the copyright to those images.
For more information about Payback, how it works and to read some answers to frequently asked questions, you can visit our website here: [url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/in-detail.[/url] ([url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback/in-detail.[/url])
With regards to making a claim, you could authorise Alamy to make a claim on your behalf but if you would instead like to make a direct claim via our website, you can reach the Payback log-in page by visiting the DACS website at [url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback[/url] ([url]http://www.dacs.org.uk/for-artists/payback[/url]) and clicking Apply Now and create a new account unless you already claim Payback with DACS.
Before making a claim you'll just need to know how many books and magazines feature your work and how many images of yours have been included in all of these books and magazines put together. The number of works of yours which have featured in these UK publications can be identified via your Alamy statement.
We do also ask for ISBN numbers, titles and publication dates of three books to verify a claim for works published in books and three ISSN/Barcode numbers, titles and publication dates / issue numbers to verify a claim for magazines (fewer if you are making a claim for only one or two books or magazines).
However if you don't have access to this information, you can enter "Alamy Claim 2013" into the verification fields of your publication claim and forward a copy of your Alamy sales report to us at [email protected] which we can use to validate your Payback claim."
End of quote :)
You just download your sales from Alamy as a CSV file and forward it to DACS once you have registered.
That way you don't have to pay the commission to Alamy :)
Errrr no You don't DACS are quite clear the Alamy Sales report is all you need and you email it to them.
It's not complex at all.
Also DACS do not search for uses of your images. They simply divide a £4million pound pot of cash between all the claimants.
The money is collected from within the TV and publishing industry.
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So please, clarify me exactly where we need to put "Alamy claim 2013"
I'm filling the claim right now, The alamy mail said i have 12 images to claim for, so in the drop down menu of the claim in the books section i choose 7to25, and the in the Fields for ISBN title and year we have to put the "Alamy claim 2013" text in all 9 fields? because all are required fields.
Is that the way you have done it Teddy the cat?
Thank you.
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I really would like to know how can we claim it ourself without information from alamy. Just giving them the sales report will do?
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So please, clarify me exactly where we need to put "Alamy claim 2013"
I'm filling the claim right now, The alamy mail said i have 12 images to claim for, so in the drop down menu of the claim in the books section i choose 7to25, and the in the Fields for ISBN title and year we have to put the "Alamy claim 2013" text in all 9 fields? because all are required fields.
Is that the way you have done it Teddy the cat?
Thank you.
I added it to all the fields ISBN Title and so on.
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I really would like to know how can we claim it ourself without information from alamy. Just giving them the sales report will do?
~Yes the sales report will do. Fill in the claim online then email the Alamy report to [email protected]
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I added it to all the fields ISBN Title and so on.
Thank you !
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hi all, generate the report using alamy website feature.. can i email as the original xml format? do i need to sort the report for them? thanks.
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Thanks to previous posters for providing information about this. I just went through it as well as I could and it was not as easy as all of that. If you live in the US, it might be easier to just let Alamy handle it unless you think the amount of money will be large. Here is my experience. If anyone knows how I should have done it differently please let me know.
I went to the DACS web site, registered and filled out the online form as indicated by others by putting in "Alamy claim 2013" in all of the fields. I have no idea if my image was used for books, magazines or whatever so just put it in for them all except for TV, which based on the image seems unlikely. Ok, fine up to this point.
Eventually you come to a page where they want bank information, including IBAN and SWIFT numbers. The SWIFT number is no problem, but apparently most banks in the US don't use IBAN numbers so I couldn't put anything into that mandatory field. Eventually I just put "No IBAN number" or something like that and it took it. The interesting part is that they never asked for an account number so I'm not sure how the money will get to your account once it reaches the bank.
At the end, there was something about non-UK residents and taxes. The US has a tax treaty with the UK to avoid double taxation making us exempt from UK income taxes since the IRS will nail us anyway. For this you have to send them a DACS residency form. OK, no problem, I printed that out, scanned it and e-mailed it back with my Alamy sales report in csv format downloaded from the Alamy web site. OK up to this point - annoying but not too bad.
However, to avoid them withholding a 20% UK income tax, you also have to get certification from the HMRC. Here is where it gets to be a pain. After perusing the HMRC web site, I downloaded what I think is the appropriate form - Form US-Individual 2002. This form of course requires you to enter a full description of the royalties, date of contract and the UK payer - none of which you know because neither Alamy nor DACS has told us. So of course we can't fill out the form until afterwards, even though the whole purpose is to avoid paying the tax in the first place.
The worst part is that you have to provide the HMRC with proof of US Residency for tax purposes, which requires the IRS to send them a Form 6166. You get the Form 6166 by sending the IRS a completed Form 8802 AND A CHECK FOR $85! So to do this and avoid them charging you UK income tax you have to pay the IRS $85 up front. Not worth the effort nor the money. I'm dropping it at this point, and if I had not already sent everything to DACS would just send Alamy their form and be done with it. Unnecessarily paying the UK 20% I suppose is better than paying Alamy 50% but I could have saved myself a lot of time by not bothering. Of course I'll change that opinion if it turns out to be a large amount, but I'm not holding my breath for that.
My recommendation: unless you have a lot of images that apply or think it will be a lot of money, it probably isn't worth the time and effort to do it yourself - much better to just fill out the brief Alamy form and be happy with anything you get.
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Eventually you come to a page where they want bank information, including IBAN and SWIFT numbers. The SWIFT number is no problem, but apparently most banks in the US don't use IBAN numbers so I couldn't put anything into that mandatory field. Eventually I just put "No IBAN number" or something like that and it took it. The interesting part is that they never asked for an account number so I'm not sure how the money will get to your account once it reaches the bank.
IBAN (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bank_Account_Number) means "International Bank Account Number".
It is the account number. I don't think it is used in the US at all...
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Then I probably should have put my account number there or maybe in the comment section - according to my bank they are not used commonly in the US if at all.
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Partly tongue in cheek and serious, depends on reply's !!
How would you like me to fill in your DACS claim for 20% ?
I've claimed the last few years and had £80, £200 and last year £500 !!!
What do you think ?
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Since I don't remember getting an email from Alamy, I wondered how do I look and see if I have any of these for the past years? Does Alamy list ISBN numbers or how do I know it's one of the UK sales, or World Wide?
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If you didn't receive the e-mail then you probably don't have any UK sales. If you go to the Build a Downloadable Sales Report button you can generate a report, then look in the Region column to see where they were bought. Unfortunately that's as much as you can find out as far as I can tell - no way to find out the rest.
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December is here, still nothing?
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I got 30 pounds by the begining of the month. Claimed for two publications, one in magazine, the other in the book.
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December is here, still nothing?
http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/3152-dacs-and-alamy/ (http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/3152-dacs-and-alamy/)
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Those who have applied their claim over Alamy, please post here when your money arrives to your balance...
I haven't got anything yet...
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Those who have applied their claim over Alamy, please post here when your money arrives to your balance...
I haven't got anything yet...
OK :) But I think you would be better following the thread which I linked to above.
FWIW I applied via Alamy. Nobody who applied via Alamy has received the money yet - because Alamy have not received it according to this post (http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/3152-dacs-and-alamy/?p=56375) from them in the thread which I linked to above.
We have not yet received the funds from DACS but when we do, these will be placed onto the appropriate photographer's balance.
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Assuming that "Worldwide" doesn't count, this would? :)
Country: United Kingdom
Usage: Editorial
Media: Newspaper - national
Print run: up to 750,000
Placement: Inside and online
Image Size: 1/4 page
Start: 01 July 2014
End: 02 July 2014
One use in a single editorial or advertorial article used within print and /or web versions, with re-use of the article in other titles or web versions within the same newspaper group. Digital use includes archive rights for the lifetime of the article.
Not enough to get excited, I'll just wait.
Thanks for the help identifying what it applied to.
If you didn't receive the e-mail then you probably don't have any UK sales. If you go to the Build a Downloadable Sales Report button you can generate a report, then look in the Region column to see where they were bought. Unfortunately that's as much as you can find out as far as I can tell - no way to find out the rest.
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Does anybody remember what time period the claim covers? Is it for the 2013/14 tax year, 2013 calendar year or something else? And do all UK sales ever made get worked into the calculation or just those for one year?
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The time frame was "the past year" but I never did figure out what that meant. I think it is just UK sales for books, magazines or TV uses that are covered - I don't think UK sales for ads or something like that would count.
I went through DACS directly and I had a mysterious wire transfer into my bank account last week that probably was from them. If so, their amount before subtracting 30% to pay the UK taxes (that I don't owe but they are making me pay anyway) was more than what I got from Alamy for the original sale so no complaints (except for having to pay the tax). That sale was in Oct 2013 so I suspect it was for calendar year 2013. Maybe others with more experience know better.
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Today I recieved 26.08 USD from Alamy for "DACS payment 2014"
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Got money today as well, thanks Alamy :)
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Got $17 since I had an awful year on Alamy is a nice little pay out to just to fill in a form!
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Added to balance. Thanks Alamy.
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34$
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$59 here :( I had hoped for more :'(
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Does anybody remember what time period the claim covers? Is it for the 2013/14 tax year, 2013 calendar year or something else? And do all UK sales ever made get worked into the calculation or just those for one year?
It's only for the calendar year 2013
2014 will be up for claims next July to Sept.
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$69 - which is a nice extra bit in a (very) slow month.
Thanks for the info, TeddyTC
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34.70 - which is more than I made there last month. I wonder if it would be worth my while to file myself to get about double that (assuming it is about the same next year).
As an aside - I had a nice bunch of sales earlier this month and assuming they all clear Alamy will be my #1 this month (unless sales pick up dramatically elsewhere)
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Hm interesting, I got exactly the same $34.70 ???
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$51 for me.
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$43,30 - not too shabby for 7 sales that counted
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$17.47 here on December 19th.