Rights-holder friendly payouts

Trolley makes paying royalties easy. Simply import your artist payment details from your royalty management software, ERP, or create recipients manually. Then, you can generate single and batch payments manually, with CSV imports, ERP imports, or API integrations and pay your artists in the method of their choice. With our payment network spanning over 210 countries and territories, you can pay deserving artists around the world in 135+ currencies.

In Trolley, you can set up royalty payments in 3 simple steps:

1. First, you’ll need to activate your Trolley account.
2. Once your account is active, add funds to your account.
3. Lastly, import recipient and payment details or just enter your recipients’ email addresses and let them provide their own details.

Now you’re ready to send royalty payments!

Royalty payments are typically taxable income in most jurisdictions. Whether you’re sending royalties from intellectual property, such as patents, copyrights, or trademarks, or from resources like oil, gas, or minerals, they’re generally subject to taxation. The tax treatment can vary depending on your country’s tax laws and the specific circumstances of the royalty payment. US-sourced royalty income must be reported to the IRS, regardless of the recipient’s country of residence. Trolley Tax automates the collection of recipient info, generation of jurisdiction-specific forms, and makes e-filing with the IRS a breeze, reducing your burden of compliance. For a deeper explanation of IRS taxation for music payouts, check out IRS royalties blog post.

The taxation of royalty payments can vary depending on several factors, including the type of royalty income, the jurisdiction, and any relevant tax treaties.
Here’s a general overview:

• Income tax: Royalty income is often considered ordinary income and is subject to income tax at the applicable tax rate.
• Withholding tax: Some jurisdictions impose withholding tax on royalty payments made to non-residents. The withholding rate can vary depending on tax treaties between countries.
• Capital gains tax: If your artist sells the rights to an intellectual property and realizes a capital gain, the gain may be subject to capital gains tax instead of ordinary income tax. The tax treatment of capital gains can be different from ordinary income tax rates.

Yes. If you are subscribed to our Tax product, Trolley will generate tax forms accounting for all the payments you have made through the financial year. These include Forms 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC, and 1042-S. When it comes times to e-file with the IRS, you can do so directly in Trolley with just a few clicks.

Yes, you can import your existing royalty payments into Trolley. You can also import your rights holders’ banking details so you don’t have to ask them to fill out the same forms again.

Trolley comes with built-in payment tracking so you can pinpoint exactly where the payment is and by when it will hit the artist’s account. We also have automatic return handling to give you total peace of mind over the money in motion.

Splits are calculated in advance using royalty calculators or CSV files. Trolley then uses the data from these files to determine the amounts to be paid out. Additionally, we provide a memo field for each payment line item, allowing you to display the split calculation for your artist.

Trolley doesn’t create royalty statements; we receive royalty data through royalty calculators or manual CSV uploads. However, we do send payment notifications, and for Tax subscribers, we generate consolidated earning tax forms for your artists at the end of the year.

Trolley Tax covers all countries for payouts sourced from the US. When a new recipient onboards, we collect all the necessary info for jurisdiction-specific tax forms before you’ve even made a payment. Tax forms are auto-validated and re-triggered whenever forms expire.