Find out how we calculate your payments and how much you can earn if you register with PLR.

How are PLR payments calculated?

Both UK and Irish PLR Schemes are Government funded. After the deduction of administrative costs the PLR fund is divided by the total loans of registered books to arrive at an annual 'rate per loan' figure, which is reviewed annually.  This forms the basis for calculating payments, which are made to authors and other eligible contributors whose registered titles have recorded sufficient loans from UK libraries. UK Payments are based on a sample of library loans data, whilst for Irish payments, loans data is collected from all public library authorities in the Republic of Ireland.

How much can I earn?

Under the UK PLR scheme there is a minimum payment threshold of £1 and a maximum of £6,600. The rate per loan for PLR year 2021/22 loans was 30.53p. 

The table below shows the UK PLR payments made to registered applicants for the 2021/22 year.

For Irish payments the minimum threshold is 2 Euros and the maximum is 1000 Euros.  The rate per loan for PLR year 2021 for Irish payments was 11.55cents.

Payment band	No of payments made
£5,000 - £6,600	303
£2,500 - £4,999.99	372
£1,000 - £2,499.99	828
£500 - £999.99	898
£100 - £499.99	3,034
£1 - £99.99	15,592
Total recipients	21,027

When will I get paid?

Annual statements confirming how much you will receive are issued for Irish PLR in November and UK PLR in January. Irish payments are made in December and UK payments in February. If you have an online account or an offline account with an email address you will be emailed a link to your statement. If you have an offline account, we do not hold an email address for you and you have received a payment you will receive a postal statement.

How will I be paid?

You can be paid directly into your bank or building society account or via a collecting society for EEA residents.

Collecting societies exist in most countries and collect fees arising from remuneration rights for authors (eg PLR and photocopying rights). An author who is a member of one of the collecting societies below can choose to have their PLR payments sent via the society.  

Country of residency	Collecting society
Austria	Literar-Mechana
Czech Republic	DILIA
France	SOFIA
Germany	VG Wort
Germany	Bild Kunst
Ireland	ICLA
Italy	SIAE
The Netherlands	Lira
The Netherlands	Pictoright
Spain	CEDRO

CEDRO has an arrangement to pay reduced tax and at present Pictoright, DILIA and SIAE do not have a tax exemption in place. All other collecting societies mentioned below can make payments exempt of tax as they have a block tax exemption in place.

If you are a member of one of the collecting societies listed and you are willing to receive payment via this method, please insert the name of the appropriate collecting society when applying. We will contact the society to verify your membership and arrange for payments to be collected on your behalf. Please note that collecting society payments can take up to four weeks. If you have still not received your payment after four weeks please contact us.

We can also make direct credit payments to accounts held in Euros and accounts in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore. For countries in the EU with their own currency (ie Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Romania and Sweden) we will send payment in Euros. However, please note that if the account is not a Euro account your bank may charge you to convert the payment.

Nominating an alternative payee

You may wish to nominate an alternative payee (such as a friend or family member or a chosen charity) to receive your PLR earnings. This does not change the ownership of the Public Lending Right. You can amend your payment arrangement at any time via your online account.

If you authorise us to send your PLR earnings to an alternative payee, we have no liability for the payment once it is successfully made to the nominated account (Section .49 PLR Scheme 1982; Schedule 4 refers).

Keeping your payment details up-to-date

It is your responsibility to keep your bank details up-to-date.

If we make a payment to your nominated account and the payment is returned to us, we will inform you in writing and place the payment on hold until we receive new payment instructions.

After six years from the payment date, if we have not received valid payment details, your entitlement to the payment will lapse and the money will go back into the fund for re-distribution.

We currently have over £130,000 in unpaid PLR earnings. If you are registered for PLR and have not heard from us in recent years we may have outstanding earnings for you to claim.

You can check and update your payment details online or call us on 01937 546030.

Are PLR earnings subject to tax and VAT?

UK PLR payments to UK residents are made without tax deductions. Payment details should be declared as income in your tax return. For non-UK residents, payments are subject to tax at the basic rate, under Section 536 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988. Tax exemption can be applied for by contacting HM Revenue & Customs Centre for Non-Residents Double Taxation Treaty Team (tel: 0300 200 3300 - from UK; + 44 135 535 9022 - from overseas). Further Information and forms can be found on their website 

If you have income from a source in one country and are resident in another, you may be liable to pay tax in both countries under their tax laws. To avoid 'double taxation' in this situation, the UK has negotiated Double Taxation (DT) treaties with more than 100 countries.

Irish PLR payments are made without deduction of tax regardless of your country of residence. Any queries relating to tax and Irish PLR payments should be addressed to the Office of the Revenue Commissioners.

PLR is outside the scope of VAT in both the UK and Ireland and should not be declared on VAT return forms. This is because PLR is a statutory activity and makes no taxable supplies. A PLR payment is not a royalty as the author is receiving a share of a subsidy or grant. In cases of any difficulty in relation to the UK scheme your local VAT offices should be asked to refer to VAT Administration Directorate (VAH2) quoting reference TL1158/82.