TitleSAG-AFTRA Health & Retirement ContributionsURL Nameacx-contributions-sag-aftra-health-retirementAnswerAudible has an agreement with Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (“SAG-AFTRA”) that enables SAG-AFTRA members or participants in SAG-AFTRA Health and Retirement Funds to accept eligible audiobook projects on ACX. In such cases, a portion of the producer's payments under the ACX Audiobook Production Agreement will be directly sent to SAG-AFTRA to fund the producer's AFTRA Health and Retirement Funds account (“AFTRA H&R”). This article outlines the types of deals on ACX that qualify for contributions to a producer's AFTRA H&R: the eligible portion of the producer's earnings for contributions, the terms producers must follow for rights holders or Audible to direct contributions, and how contributions should be directed to the producer's AFTRA H&R. All rights holders and producers entering into an eligible SAG-AFTRA deal on ACX agree to abide by these SAG-AFTRA contribution conditions. In this article: How does a producer contribute to AFTRA H&R under a Pay-for-Production deal or a Royalty Share Plus deal?What is a paymaster? How can I contribute to the AFTRA H&R Funds if I am not a member?Which projects qualify for AFTRA H&R Funds contributions?How is my AFTRA H&R contribution calculated?What is the AFTRA Contribution Rate and how is it calculated on ACX?How is the AFTRA Contribution Rate calculated for ACX narrators? How are SAG-AFTRA H&R contributions paid to SAG-AFTRA?Conditions for contributions to a producer’s AFTRA H&R Other terms and conditions How does a producer contribute to AFTRA H&R under a Pay-for-Production deal or a Royalty Share Plus deal? To qualify for AFTRA H&R, the offered rate must be at least $250 per-finished-hour for pay for production deals, or at least $100 per-finished-hour for royalty share plus deals. The producer must: While reviewing the offer, accept it "with AFTRA H&R".Enter their SAG-AFTRA ID when prompted. If you do not have your SAG-AFTRA ID or do not know it, you may continue accepting the offer with SAG-AFTRA H&R without it. You have the option to enter this information later in your ACX account settings under ‘Personal Information.’Tell the rights holder you have accepted the offer "with AFTRA H&R". The rights holder must send payment to your designated paymaster at the completion of the project. The ACX preferred paymaster is Eljin Productions.If you elect to use Eljin Productions as your paymaster, send an email to support@eljininc.com letting them know you've accepted the project. Provide the name of the audiobook, the accepted rate, and the name of the rights holder. If the paymaster has never handled payments for you, you may also need to provide a copy of your W-9. Once payment is received, the paymaster will calculate the portion to be sent to AFTRA on your behalf, deduct a small handling fee, and send the balance to you. Payment will be made to AFTRA on your behalf within roughly 30 days. Note: The AFTRA H&R contribution will only be made if payment is handled via the paymaster. What is a paymaster? A paymaster is a company that has signed an agreement allowing them to act as a payroll administrator between various parties. At ACX, the role of the paymaster is simple: act as the intermediary between the rights holder, producer, and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). Union rules do not allow narrators or rights holders to submit contributions directly; they may only be made by a paymaster. In addition to sending contributions to the union, the paymaster facilitates tax-related record keeping. On ACX the paymaster is only involved when a producer accepts a Pay-for-Production or qualifying Royalty Share Plus offer and elects to contribute a portion of their earnings to the AFTRA Health and Retirement fund. You may use any SAG-AFTRA-approved paymaster. Our preferred paymaster is Eljin Productions. Eljin Productions, Inc. 44 Kane Avenue Larchmont, NY 10538 Email: support@eljininc.com How can I contribute to the AFTRA H&R Funds if I am not a member of SAG-AFTRA? SAG-AFTRA members and non-members may accept qualifying projects under SAG-AFTRA terms and have contributions made to the AFTRA H&R Fund on their behalf. The producer must: Be a member of SAG-AFTRA or opt to participate in AFTRA Health and Retirement Funds. Personally perform narration services for the audiobook (instead of subcontracting a narrator). In order to accept an offer for an SAG-AFTRA eligible deal subject to contributions to the producer’s AFTRA H&R, the producer must go to the Offers tab in ACX and accept the offer by selecting the Accept with AFTRA H&R button on the production offer page. Which projects qualify for AFTRA H&R Funds contributions? To qualify for AFTRA H&R, please review the following: Eligible Royalty Share Plus deals. For Royalty Share deals to be eligible for contributions to the producer’s AFTRA H&R, the rights holder must pay a one-time fee of $100 (inclusive of AFTRA H&R contributions) or more per finished hour. No AFTRA H&R contribution will be made if the per finished hour rate of the one-time fee is lower than $100.Eligible Pay for Production deals. For a producer’s earnings under a Pay-for-Production deal to be eligible for contributions to the producer’s AFTRA H&R, the producer’s hourly rate must be $250 or more (inclusive of AFTRA H&R contributions). No AFTRA H&R contributions will be made if the per finished hour rate is lower than $250. Offers that do not meet these criteria cannot be accepted with AFTRA H&R contributions. How is my AFTRA H&R contribution calculated? SAG-AFTRA rules allow AFTRA H&R contributions to be made on monies earned from performance, not production. Since Pay-for-Production and Royalty Share Plus offered rates are for full production (performance + production), only a select portion of the per-finished-hour rate qualifies for AFTRA H&R contributions. The amount allocated to performance follows the rate table shown below. These rules apply only to pay for production or royalty share plus offers accepted "with AFTRA H&R". Offer Rate (PFH)Performance Allocation (PFH)Production Allocation (PFH)$100*$100$0$250$250$0$275$250$25$300$250$50$325$250$75$350$250$100$375$250$125$400$275$125$425$300$125$450$325$125$475$350$125Above $475Rate - $125$125 *$100 PFH is valid as the minimum base rate for Royalty Share Plus deals only. Pay-for-Production deals accepted with SAG-AFTRA must have a minimum rate of $250 PFH. What is the AFTRA Contribution Rate and how is it calculated on ACX? The current standard AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds (“AFTRA H&R”) contribution rate is 14%. To avoid disadvantaging SAG-AFTRA members as compared to non-SAG-AFTRA members, instead of adding the contribution percentage on top of the rates paid to a SAG-AFTRA narrator for Pay-for-Production and Royalty Share Plus deals, the AFTRA H&R contribution amount is deducted from the gross rates paid to the narrator. This way, rights holders are not discouraged from hiring SAG-AFTRA narrators, since the gross cost is the same as hiring non-SAG-AFTRA narrators. How is the AFTRA Contribution Rate calculated for ACX narrators? An amount equal to 12.281% of the base rate is deducted and paid to the AFTRA H&R Fund, which is equivalent to a 14% AFTRA contribution when calculated against the net amount. For example, in a Royalty Share Plus deal enrolled in Audible’s new royalty model, if you are paid $100PFH and a 25% royalty share and you elect to make contributions to the AFTRA H&R Fund, then: For each $100, $12.28 will be deducted and paid to the AFTRA H&R Fund. The remaining $87.72 will be paid to you (net of applicable taxes and paymaster handling fees). The $12.28 contribution to the AFTRA H&R Fund is equivalent to 14% of $87.72. The 25% royalties paid to you will be split as follows: 3.07% will be deducted and paid to the AFTRA H&R Fund. The remaining 21.93% will be paid to you (net of applicable taxes). The 3.07% contribution to the AFTRA H&R Fund is equivalent to 14% of 21.93%. For example, in a Royalty Share Plus deal enrolled in Audible’s legacy royalty model, if you are paid $100PFH and a 20% royalty share and you elect to make contributions to the AFTRA H&R Fund, then: For each $100, $12.28 will be deducted and paid to the AFTRA H&R Fund. The remaining $87.72 will be paid to you (net of applicable taxes and paymaster handling fees). The $12.28 contribution to the AFTRA H&R Fund is equivalent to 14% of $87.72. The 20% royalties paid to you will be split as follows: 2.46% will be deducted and paid to the AFTRA H&R Fund. The remaining 17.54% will be paid to you (net of applicable taxes). The 2.46% contribution to the AFTRA H&R Fund is equivalent to 14% of 17.54%. Narrators who are SAG-AFTRA members should consider the deduction of AFTRA H&R contributions, as well as the applicable paymaster fee, when deciding on a rate to charge for their audiobook production services on ACX. How are SAG-AFTRA H&R contributions paid to SAG-AFTRA? If a producer accepts a Royalty Share Plus deal that is a SAG-AFTRA Eligible deal by selecting the “Accept with AFTRA H&R” button, then the rights holder and Audible will send the appropriate contribution to the AFTRA H&R Funds as follows: Eligible Royalty Share Plus deals: Payments by Audible: Audible will deduct the applicable percentage from the producer’s ongoing royalties under the ACX audiobook production agreement and send such amount directly to the AFTRA H&R Funds to fund the producer’s AFTRA H&R contributions. The remaining amount of ongoing royalties, less applicable tax withholdings, will be sent directly to the producer.Payments by rights holder: The rights holder will direct the full amount of the producer’s one-time fee to a paymaster designated by the producer (the “paymaster”). To ensure payment is attributed to the correct project, please include a completed copy of this form. Eligible Pay-for-Production deals: Payments by rights holder: The rights holder will direct the full amount of the producer’s payment to a paymaster designated by the producer. The paymaster will send payment to the producer, and handle all other union-related payment needs. To ensure payment is attributed to the correct project, please include a completed copy of this form.Because the producer’s responsibilities under an ACX audiobook production agreement encompass activities beyond narration services covered by SAG-AFTRA, in a SAG-AFTRA Eligible Pay-for-Production deal, for rates above $250 per finished hour, AFTRA H&R contributions will only be deducted with respect to the portion of the producer’s per finished hour rate that applies to the producer’s narration services. This portion of the producer’s per finished hour rate is the “AFTRA H&R Calculation Rate” and is set forth below in the following table. Per Finished Hourly RatePer Finished Hourly Rate for purposes of AFTRA H&R Funds Contributions$250$250$275$250$300$250$325$250$350$250$375$250$400$275$425$300$450$325$475$350$475.01 +Rate – $125 per finished hour (i.e., $350.01+) Conditions for contributions to a producer’s AFTRA H&R In order for a producer to receive AFTRA H&R contributions: (a) the producer must personally perform the narration services for the audiobook; (b) the rights holder or Audible, as applicable, must approve the finished audiobook; (c) the producer must comply with these SAG-AFTRA contribution conditions, as determined by Audible; (d) the producer must not be found by Audible to have engaged in any fraudulent activity with respect to any SAG-AFTRA eligible deal, these SAG-AFTRA contribution conditions, or any other offer or service made available through ACX; and (e) the ACX audiobook production agreement between the producer and the rights holder must not be terminated. If the required conditions are not met for any SAG-AFTRA eligible deal, the producer will not be entitled to SAG-AFTRA H&R contributions, even though the applicable deal is a SAG-AFTRA eligible deal, and neither Audible nor a rights holder will be obligated to make contributions to the producer’s AFTRA H&R. Other terms and conditions Audible reserves the right to modify these SAG-AFTRA contribution conditions at any time, including the terms and threshold payment amounts that are required for a Pay-for-Production deal or Royalty Share deal to qualify as a SAG-AFTRA eligible deal. Changes to these SAG-AFTRA contribution conditions will not affect any SAG-AFTRA eligible deal a rights holder or producer entered into prior to the effective date of such changes and, in such case, the version of these SAG-AFTRA contribution conditions in effect at the time the rights holder or producer entered into the applicable SAG-AFTRA eligible deal will apply. Audible may discontinue the applicability of AFTRA H&R payments to qualifying ACX deals at any time. In this case, Audible will provide a notice on the site. The discontinuance of AFTRA H&R payments through ACX will not affect any SAG-AFTRA eligible deal a rights holder or producer has entered into prior to the effective date of the discontinuance.