Clarified guidance for museums and galleries exhibition tax relief

The relief is structured in a similar way to Film Tax Relief and Theatre Tax Relief, allowing eligible museums and galleries to claim tax relief for qualifying spending on new exhibitions - there are, as you’d expect, detailed rules that need to be followed to qualify and calculate a claim.

Charitable companies and wholly owned subsidiaries of charities or local authorities are entitled to claim MGETR and claims can be backdated to April 2017

A qualifying exhibition is defined to be ‘a curated public display’, intended to be open to the general public, with at least 25% of ‘core expenditure’ incurred in the EEA (European Economic Area).

Certain exhibitions are excluded, including those:

• organised in connection with a competition

• where the sale of displayed objects is a main purpose
• which include a live performance by a person, except where this is incidental or an incidental part
• where anything displayed is for sale or is alive

The relief has two rates of payable credit: 25% for touring exhibitions, and 20% for others. There are strict criteria for touring exhibitions.  The relief (at 25% or 20%) can be claimed on up to 80% of the expenditure incurred on producing, deinstalling and closing the exhibition at every relevant venue. The amount of the payment is capped to a maximum per exhibition, at £80,000 for a non-touring exhibition or £100,000 for a touring exhibition.

To claim relief, it may be beneficial (or necessary) to restructure, perhaps by operating through a new company. To qualify for the touring rate, you may need to adjust the tour programme. So proper planning may be critical to an MGETR claim. Our experience with Theatre Tax relief has been that the complications can be quickly overcome and the benefits are worthwhile.

We are specialists, experienced in making and negotiating creative industry tax relief claims. For more information on how we can help, please speak to your usual  Larking Gowen contact. Call 0330 024 0888 or email enquiry@larking-gowen.co.uk

Information about MGETR can be found on the HMRC website

Chris Yeates