Agency Fee/Cut/Percentage

[WildChild]

Received DS's remittance slip today and was shocked to discover our agency is taking 33% of his earning. I admit I have not looked at this before, so it might always have been 33%, but that seems high to me. I know when I was working it was between 15-20% and one would expect it to have gone up some, but this seems a big jump. Can anyone shed light on whether or not this is a standard cut? Considering changing agencies!

[sapphire]

33% does seem very steep! DD pays 10-20% depending on the type of job.

[Yorkshirepudding]

10 to 20% here too according to nature of job and no percentage taken on little jobs. Maybe it is different in different places? We are 'oop North'.

[Dwafffamily]

It won't be that much they are taking but there was a change a few years back now in how they had to invoice it. Can't recall the ins and outs though.

[pg]

That is very high - though it isn't uncommon for children's agencies to charge higher commission than adult agencies - as they tend to have more organising /administration to do.

[pg]

Many agencies will also have to charge VAT on their commission, so that bumps it up too.

[paulears]

They also of course charge VAT on the supply of the artiste to the production company. 33% is still too high. I'd be wanting to negotiate that down, as other agencies may be better for you, and possibly give you more work. Agents who make less commission often balance this with working harder.

[pg]

I don't think that's the case for most actors Paulears? Unless I have completely misunderstood an actor's pay all these years! (Maybe I have ).

I know that commercials sometimes have an agency fee on top of a client's fee - but that's not the case for most acting work as far as I'm aware.

The actor gets paid a fee or a wage. The agent gets commission. They get their commission from the actor, not from the production company. The agent doesn't charge VAT on top of the fee paid for employment of the actor because it's not the agent's fee, it's the actor's fee - which the agent may well (usually does?) collect on behalf of the actor. Most actors are not VAT registered (unless they have a very high - for an actor! - annual turnover ). If the agent is registered for VAT they're obliged to add VAT to the commission they charge to their client. Their client is the actor - not the production company. ( they don't keep the VAT of course, they just collect it). If they're VAT registered then they can also then reclaim the VAT on anything they purchase for their business.

If the actor is registered for VAT then they'll have to charge VAT on top of their fee presumably but I don't know many who have high enough turnover.

The agent only charges VAT on his/her commission if he or she is VAT registered. Some smaller agencies don't have a high enough turnover to be obliged to be VAT registered.

I do agree that 33% is very high and that finding an agent that charges much less would be a good move.

[paulears]

I know what you mean - the snag with some agencies is that they provide services too - so they often buy and sell a 'product' or a person. With straight acting and theatrical roles then sometimes the artiste gets the fee, and then pays commission, but others invoice the production company, and then the artiste invoices them, or the production company credit the agents bank account and then the agent transfers the amount less commission to the artiste. If services other than the person are involved they normally charge VAT. My contracts get offered at £x for the complete contract, and I invoice the production company this amount and add the VAT. I don't use an agent for this work normally, and the production company simply divide my invoice up and pay it in weekly stages. On the other hand another agent books our band into venues at £X plus VAT to the booker, and then we invoice him for our services, again, adding VAT. When they do the buy and sell thing, there is no commission, but we never find out how much he sold us for, but if it's a commission deal, then they deduct the commission off the net figure. HMRC seem to accept all these different ways of working. I guess the VAT is irrelevant to those registered, but worth fighting about if you are not.

I wish I actually understood which of these ways was best, but I really don't know!

[Irishdancer]

PG is right my kids have always paid the VAT on the commission that there agents have taken. My kids have had 25% taken from modelling agency's children's acting agency have had between 15% to 20% his aduld agency takes between 10% - 15%. I have heard that some of the agency's that take on a lot of people and don't even ask for them to go in and see agent take 33%. I also know ehen Mark Jerman first started if he was connected with a big stage school so when his kids got work the stage school took 20% then MJ took 15% so that was 35% but he went out on his own years ago so his children don't think they get 35% taken off them now. If I was you and my child was getting work I would change agency's your child is paying between £13 - £18 per £100 more than most agency's take so if your child so that is between £130 - £180 for every £1000 earns and if they got some thing really good £5000 that would be £900 in your child's bank account if they where with another agent that took less commission its a lot of money

[Panda]

Was it modelling or TV work? Some agencies seem to charge mega commission on modelling work so not surprised if that. Most agents are around 20-25% for TV work but some are as low as 15%. Also depends if a long term contract you should be able to negotiate lower than one off job? Sorry you had a nasty surprise

[x_sugarplumfairy_x]

Hi i know this is a pretty old post but i was having a read as im in a similar situation at the moment. My daughter just auditioned for my first choice agency and was accepted so i was all set to sign the paperwork but when iv just read through the T&Cs they take 30% commision from all jobs which i do think is really high. Im not sure what to do now as i was keen for her to be represented by that agency but that does seem to be a large cut. So far we've only applied for one other agency who take 22% and shes been accepted by them but they do seem to secure less work than our 1st choice and the agency shes with take 25% for tv/tvc but a smaller cut for smaller jobs so i dont know im really undecided now on what to do! X

[Caroline A-C]

30% does seem quite high. My ds, who is now an adult, pays 12.5% for stage work and I believe it is 15% for film and tv. My dd, who is still a child, pays 20% and 12.5% for the work done on an extra's agency. I would perhaps hold fire and look around before signing.

[lyndahill]

Does that 30% include vat or do you pay that on the commission fee taken as well? 30% is high - we pay 20% on TV/Films/Commercials, 10% on theatre and nothing if a fee was under £100. We do pay vat on the commission fee as well though.

[Mamadetres]

30% is high!