Arts and Cultural institutions
The world of the Arts, and cultural institutions such as Galleries, Museums, Theatres, Orchestras, and Ballet and Opera companies, has been especially hard hit by the crisis, and the freelance community is precarious at the best of times.
Arts and Cultural institutions in a time of lockdown
The arts community is responding with a range of initiatives of enormous generosity, creativity and imagination. The Arts Council has announced a £160m emergency package of support. There are a range of other measures to help too. Amongst these are:
- The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme announced by the Chancellor 10 days ago providing a grant of 80% of employees’ salaries up to £2,500 where they might otherwise be made redundant;
- The corresponding Self Employed income support scheme providing a taxable grant of 80% of average monthly profits up to £2,500;
- Business rates exemption for 2020/2021 (for 12 months) for buildings in use as leisure facilities, including museums, art galleries, theatres, ticket offices and live music venues
- Where ticket refunds have been waived for cancelled performances or Exhibitions, they can potentially be turned into Gift Aided donations;
- The deferral of tax payments by Time To Pay (TTP) arrangements, the deferral of VAT and of the July 2nd Payment on Account for the self-employed;
- Making the most of Orchestra, and Theatre Tax Reliefs which can reduce corporation tax payable or generate a cash tax payment up to 25% of qualifying pre-production costs;
- Exploring R&D tax reliefs which can reduce qualifying spend costs by over 40%. This might be applicable where significant new initiatives are taking place to take activity onto digital platforms;
- The Business Interruption Loan Scheme for additional funding
Get in touch
If you would like to know more about any of these options please get in touch.
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