Let's Talk GR Music covering tax, legal issues for artists

On March 27, 2017, Let’s Talk GR Music hosted a conversation about “Tax and Legal for Artists” with Glave Business Solutions of Grand Rapids, MI. This marked the second meeting with Glave Business Solutions since the conception of Let’s Talk GR Music over a year ago.

The idea for the night was to have a conversation about how business plays a role in an artist’s life. When do you have to pay taxes? It is smart to incorporate and create a business entity for art? What steps are taken, and are there any benefits to forming a separate entity? The night covered a lot of these basic business questions as well as some highly intellectual concepts.

Three members of Glave Business Solutions were gracious enough to meet up and field questions and suggest solutions during their busiest time of the year. Ron Hancock and Aaron Hennesey covered questions on the tax end of the conversation while Steve Phillips addressed the legal questions artists presented.  

Most of the night focused on the benefits for forming a legal entity for artists and how artists can go about doing so. Also, we spent significant time talking about how important an operating agreement is when forming an entity and what type of information should be covered. For example, what does a band do if a member quits, or gets kicked out or how are members paid if a certain song were to make the group a large sum of money in royalties? They did an awesome explaining why the business end can be so important to get in order before an artist grows too much.

My biggest take away was how the night was covered in such and honest and candid way. It is very important to understand the obligations that come with making money for creating a product or providing a service. It is also important to understand how some aspects of art and music actually work. On paper all of the tax questions are very black and white, but in reality it seems that most of the situations are not. It was interesting to hear examples of how other artists work in town and to relate to some of the struggles that exist for all of us. Not all “business models” are going to be the same, but understanding the basics can help an artist further their career. Glave Business Solutions made it very clear that their doors are open and they want to help. They mentioned several times that they want to be involved in this community and are willing to meet and see if they would be a good fit to help artists in town. Everything they mentioned was very low pressure and was genuine.

If you would like more information about Glave Business Solutions they can be found at www.GlaveGr.com.

Our next meeting will feature three local recording studios talking about recording music in Grand Rapids and fielding questions about everything studio related. Our guests will include Peter Fox of Stone House Recording, Roy Wallace of River City Studios and Matt Ten Clay of Amber Lit Audio.

Let’s Talk GR Music always meets on the last Monday of the month. Our 18th meeting will take place Monday, April 24, 2017, at The Wealthy Theatre Annex located at 1110 Wealthy St. SE.

For more information you can find it here at The Rapidian, by searching “Let’s Talk GR Music” on Facebook or by following the Twitter handle @LetsTalkGRMusic.