Withholding Tax on Author Royalty
Royalty is a form of income to the author and is subject to withholding tax, collected at source, by the publisher, on behalf of the authorities, subject to the publisher’s country custom requirements.
Country Withholding Tax laws
Withholding Tax laws vary from country to country. But in general, withholding tax does not apply if the book is sold outside the publisher’s area/country.
Because customs laws require that withholding tax is charged on sales made to customers who reside in the publisher’s country and not outside it, in Focus, if a book is sold to a customer whose country is not same as the country of the Publisher, as defined in the Native Country (Maintenance > Preferences > Currency/Rates) withholding tax is not applied on such a transaction.
In order to meet this customs legal requirement to recognize the country of each customer that bought the book and to apply the seven different types of royalty calculations available in Focus (some of which are based on escalating percentages) note that the system must compute withholding tax on a transaction by transaction basis, and not on the final royalty figure.
To set the control account for Withholding Tax
- Go to Maintenance> Preferences
- Select Control Accounts
- For Withholding Tax click in the Nominal Code column to set the control account
- Click the Save button
To set the general Withholding Tax Rate
- Go to Maintenance> Preferences
- Select Other Preferences
- Then go to Stock Ledger> Section One
- In the General Withholding Tax Ratebox, enter the general withholding tax rate
- Click the Savebutton
The withholding tax per royalty is displayed on the respective Multi-title statement. The total withholding tax figure is posted automatically to the Withholding Tax Control Account.
Apply withholding tax on author record
- Go to Accounts> Purchase Ledger > Suppliers
- Select an author record
- Go to Details> General
- Tick the ‘Apply withholding tax rate‘ box
- In the ‘Personal Withholding Tax Rate’ box, enter the personal Withholding Tax Rate. To use the general Withholding Tax Rate leave it at zero (0)
- Click the ‘Save’ button
The system applies withholding tax during the computation of royalties based on the general Withholding Tax Rate or personal Withholding Tax Rate held in the system.

Cost of Sales Overview
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Calculate unit costs
Job Profile / Enquiry
Calculate Royalty
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Withholding Tax on Royalty
Add Author Records
Set Royalty Rates
Set Rights Royalty