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 canmust:

• be claimactively Theatreengaged Taxin Reliefplanning and decision-making
• directly negotiate, contract and pay for rights, goods and services
• be responsible for putting on the production from start to finish, including either:
  • employing
  • engaging the performers

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 the relief if:

• it puts on one of the following qualifying theatrical productions:
  • a play, opera, musical or other dramatic piece that tells a story, where the performances are live and the performers give their performances through the playing of roles
  • a ballet

  The

• the main purpose of the audience members mustis be to observe the performance.

  To qualify, performance

• all or a high proportion of the performances mustare be for paying members of the general public or provided for educational purposes.

  Atpurposes

• at least 25% of the ‘core costs’ isare usedspent on goods or services provided from within the UK or the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein known as the European Economic Area (EEA).) This— rulefrom is changing soon. From 1 April 2024,2024 at least 10% of the ‘core costs’ must relate to activities in the UK.
  UK

Core costs are what’s spent on producing and closing the theatrical production. This does not include any of the costs which happen while the production is running.

Your company must also:

• be actively engaged in planning and decision-making
• directly negotiate, contract and pay for rights, goods and services
• be responsible for putting on the production from start to finish, including either:
  • employing
  • engaging the performers

Who cannot claim

Your companythe cannotrelief claim Theatre Tax Relief for the production if:

• the main purpose, or one of the main purposes, is to advertise or promote any goods or services
• the performances include a competition or contest
• a wild animal is used in any performance
• the production is of a sexual nature
• the main object, or one of the main objects, is to make a relevant recording
• the production has been produced for training purposes

You can check if the production qualifies for the relief.

What you can claim

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

The additional deduction will be the lower of:

• 80% of total core expenditurecosts
• the amount of core expenditurecosts 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 UK

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

The current rate for surrendering losses is 45%. You can surrender losses at a higher rate of 50% if your production is touring.

The current rates are a temporary uplift. The standard rates are 20%, and 25% for touring productions.

For your production to be considered as touring at least one of the following must apply:

• at the start of the production phase, you must intend to have performances at 6 or more separate premises
• there will be at least 14 performances and these will be in at least 2 separate premises

The current rates are a temporary uplift. The standard rates are 20%, and 25% for touring productions.

When you can claim

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

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 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.

For each production you must provide:

• the title of the production
• start date of the production
• statements of the amount of core expenditure,costs, split by:
  • UK or EEA
  • non-UK or non-EEA
• a breakdown of expenditurecosts by category

If you’re claiming the touring rate of relief, then you also need to provide the dates and number of performances at each premises.

FurtherGet more information

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