U.S. income-tax treaty royalty (FDAP) withholding for nonresident NIL athletes

01 — Purpose & scope

What this rate is, and what it is not

When a nonresident athlete earns U.S.-source NIL income, that income is generally FDAP income to the extent it is characterized as a royalty for the use of the athlete’s name, image, and likeness. A treaty may reduce the statutory 30% withholding. The Applied royalty (FDAP) rate below is the treaty royalty rate the engine applies to that income once it is characterized as a royalty — a general royalty rate the income maps into, not a rate defined for NIL.

02 — Primary sources

Every rate traces to an authoritative source

03 — Methodology

Choosing one rate from Table 1’s five royalty columns

Table 1 splits royalties into industrial equipment, know-how / other industrial royalties (income code 10), patents, film & TV, and copyrights. NIL is not a patent, film, copyright, or technical know-how; it is a general commercial / publicity-type royalty, whose closest home is the “other industrial royalties” column — the default basis for the applied rate. Two documented exceptions, flagged for counsel:

04 — This verification

Six rates changed on 2026-08-24

The in-force list itself was unchanged — no new ratifications, terminations, or suspensions. One rate was stale; four had used a lower copyright/film sub-rate instead of the general “other” rate; one is a conservative characterization call.

05 — Surveillance

How often this is re-checked

A dated reconciliation is worth what its maintenance is worth. Treaty positions move in two independent ways — a treaty’s status changes (ratified, terminated, suspended), or the rate document itself is reissued — so each is watched separately, on its own cadence.

Detection is automated; every change is applied by a human. Nothing here is auto-published — a flagged change becomes a review task, and these rates move only once someone has re-read the source and re-run the reconciliation. Confirmed public changes post to Law Watch.

06 — Master reference

Every covered country, with its Table 1 provenance

The Applied royalty (FDAP) rate is what the engine uses. The shaded Know-how / Other (10) column is its basis; the remaining columns let the characterization be checked against the treaty article. — = no discrete Table 1 row (successor treaties).

Generated from lib/rules/treaties.mjs · reconciled against IRS Table 1 — Tax Rates on Income Other Than Personal Service Income (Rev. May 2023) · verified 2026-08-24 · public rate reference · treaty changes we track