Honoraria Guidelines

About Honorarium Payments

An honorarium is normally a one-time payment granted in recognition of a special service or distinguished achievement for which propriety precludes setting a fixed price, such as a special lecture, participation in a workshop or panel discussion, or similar activities. If the fee is prescribed by the individual or if it is negotiated, an honorarium situation does not exist, rather a contract for services exists. Further, it is inappropriate to pay honoraria to individuals who make significant instructional contributions to a course, or to pay honoraria over several months, such as to visiting scholars. Visiting scholars may be paid an honorarium but it must be processed via the VSPA Living Allowances payment process. Honorarium payments are generally not allowable charges to federal funds unless a contract or grant specifically authorizes such payments.

Honoraria Payments to Non-University Personnel

For non-UC personnel, approvals up to $10,000 for non-UC personnel and up to $5,000 for UC academic personnel not homed on the UC Berkeley campus are delegated to Deans, Vice Provosts, Vice Chancellors, and the University Librarian. This authority may be redelegated to Department Chairs and Organized Research Units Directors up to $2,500. Check with your division leader on your local approval process.

Honoraria in excess of these delegated amounts require advanced written approval by the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost. Requests for exceptional approval may be submitted via Docusign PowerForm or sent via email to evcp-finance@berkeley.edu. Please include the date(s) and location of the event, the honorarium recipient's biography, links to the event page, a description of the activity, and justification for exception and the funding source, along with the division head's endorsement of the honorarium amount. You must attach a copy of the EVCP approval with the Payment Request or payment will not be issued.

Honoraria payments to non-university personnel are processed through the BearBuy system with a Payment Request Form. Please refer to the Payment Requests (BearBuy) page for more information. Appropriate documentation (for example: a copy of the flyer or announcement of speech, a letter of invitation to the recipient, etc.) should be scanned and attached to the Payment Request Form in BearBuy. Honoraria should be classified with BFS expense account code 56726.

For further information, please refer to Section D-371-35 of the Accounting Manual.

Honoraria Payments Generated within a Research Control Unit

Unit Directors reporting directly to the Vice Chancellor for Research have been delegated authority to approve payments up to $2,500. Payments above $2,500 require written approval by the Vice Chancellor for Research prior to the event.

Honoraria Payments to UC Faculty from Other UC Campuses

The maximum honoraria rate that can be paid to University of California faculty is $5,000. All University of California faculty honoraria payments of $5,000 or less require the written approval of a Dean, Vice Chancellor, the university Librarian, or Vice Provost. Exceptional honoraria paid to University of California faculty in excess of $5,000 need to be submitted to the EVCP office for approval at evcp-finance@berkeley.edu.

Payment of honoraria to faculty from other UC campuses should be processed on a Multi-Location / Interlocation One-Time Payment form (PDF) and be routed through APO. Honoraria payments from LBNL are paid through Central Payroll and a corresponding invoice is created in BFS:AR. Please refer to the Lawrence Berkeley Lab Honorarium to UCB Faculty page for more information. All honoraria paid to University of California faculty must conform to the relevant provisions in the Academic Personnel Manual Sections 660 and 666.

Please note that State funds cannot be used for honoraria paid to University of California faculty.

For further information on honoraria paid to UC faculty, please contact the Academic Personnel Office at 510-642-5626 or APpolicy@berkeley.edu.

Non-Academic UC Staff

Non-academic staff members are not eligible to receive honoraria or any other payments related to the service they provide as employees.

Honoraria Payments to Foreign Individuals

Honoraria payments to foreign individuals are subject to the same guidelines as citizens and residents of the U.S. In addition, there are other requirements that must be met before a payment can be made.

Determine if a GLACIER Tax Record is required

If the foreign individual is not a U.S. Citizen, U.S. Permanent Resident, Refugee or Asylee, they must have a complete GLACIER Tax Record and all GLACIER forms must be signed and submitted to the Payroll Policy and Controls office before the payment can be processed. Information regarding GLACIER can be found on the GLACIER Foreign Tax Compliance System page.

Determine if the foreign individual has a US Tax ID Number

If the individual does not have a Social Security Number and is not eligible to apply for one, they must apply for an Individual Taxpayer ID Number (ITIN). Please refer to Individual Taxpayer ID Number (ITIN) for Honorarium Recipients for information on this process.

Contact

After reviewing the information above, if you have questions or need further assistance regarding payments to foreign individuals, please contact the Glacier team at glacieradmin@berkeley.edu.

Payments to a Third Party

An individual may indicate in writing to the university before the services are performed that the person declines the honorarium and requests (but does not demand) that the honorarium be donated by the university to a specific charity. Because the individual declined the honorarium before it was earned, the person will not be treated as receiving taxable income. The university may consider and may choose to abide by a request to donate the funds to the requested charity, but if it does not satisfy all policy requirements, the request may be denied. In no event, however, shall a declined honorarium be paid into an employee's research account or other fund controlled by the employee.