Watch a video about how Creative Industry Tax reliefs work.

What are Creative Industry Tax Reliefs and how do they work?

Who can claim

Your company must: 

• be responsible for putting on the concert from start to finish, including employing or engaging the performers 
• be actively engaged in planning and decision-making 

• directly negotiate, contract and pay for: 

  • rights 
  • goods 
  • services 

Check if your company qualifies as the production company before claiming the relief.

Check if the production qualifies for the tax relief

Your company can claim Orchestrathe Taxrelief Relief if it’s a qualifying orchestral production company putting on a qualifying orchestral concert.concert. 

A qualifying orchestral concert is one which:which: 

• is performed wholly or mainly by instrumentalists who are the primary focus of the concert, this can be by a:a: 
  • orchestraorchestra 
  • ensembleensemble 
  • groupgroup 
  • bandband 
• consists of a minimum of 12 instrumentalistsinstrumentalists 
• all or the majority of the instruments are not electronically amplifiedamplified 
• is intended to be performed live for the paying public or for educational purposespurposes 
• has at least 25% of ‘core costs’ is on goods or services provided from within the UK or the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein known as the European Economic Area (EEA) — from 1 April 2024, at least 10% of the ‘core costs’ must relate to activities in the UKUK 

Core costs are what’s spent on producing the production. It does not include expenditurecosts on the actual performance.performance. 

Your company mustcannot also:

• beclaim responsiblethe relief for putting on the concert from start to finish, including employing or engaging the performers
• be actively engaged in planning and decision-making
• directly negotiate, contract and pay for:
  • rights
  • goods
  • services

Who cannot claim

A concert will not qualify for relief if the:the: 

• main purpose, or one of the main purposes, is to advertise or promote any goods or servicesservices 
• performances include a competition or contestcontest 
• main object, or one of the main objects, is to make a relevant recording

You can check if the production qualifies for the relief.

What you can claimclaim 

You can claim an additional deduction to reduce your profits or to increase a loss. This will reduce the amount of any Corporation Tax you will need to pay.pay. 

The additional deduction is the lower of:of: 

• 80% of total core costscosts 
• the amount of core costs on goods or services that are provided from the UK or EEA — from 1 April 2024, it is the amount of core expenditurecosts relating to activities in the UKUK 

If you make a loss, some or all of this loss can be surrendered for a payable tax credit at a rate of 25%.25%. 

When you can claimclaim 

You can make, amend or withdraw a claim for Orchestra Tax Relief up to one year after the company’s filing date.date. 

For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024, you may make, amend or withdraw a claim tofor Orchestra Tax Relief up to 2 years after the end of the period of account the claim relates to.to. 

HMRC may agree to accept late claims in some circumstances.

How to claim

YouWatch cana video about how to claim Creative Industry Tax relief.

How to make a claim for Creative Industries Tax Relief.

Claim the tax relief on your Company Tax Return.

From April 2025, you must include the CT600P creative industries supplementary page with your return.

You will need to calculate the amount of:

• additional deduction due to your company
• any payable credit due

From 1 April 2024, all claims must be accompanied by an additional information form.form. ThisYou willmust allowuse youthis form to providesubmit the necessary evidence to support your claim.

You must also provide:

• the name and address of the venue for each performance
• statements of the amount of core expenditure,costs, split between:
  • UK or EEA
• non-UK or non-EEA expenditure

a breakdown of expenditurecosts by category

the production start date

You may elect to have multiple concerts treated as a single concert. If you’ve made an election, you should indicate the date of the election in your return.

Elections must be made before the later of either: 

• the date of the first concert in the series, or series 
• the date of the first claim which relates to a concert in the series, whichever is later.
  series

Elections should be sent by email to: creative.industries@hmrc.gov.uk.

FurtherGet more information

You can find detailedmore guidanceinformation, for orchestral production companies, including examples of how the relief is calculated, in the Orchestra Tax Relief Manual.