Exhibition tax relief extended in spring budget

The Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief will remain at a higher rate for the next two years, chancellor Jeremy Hunt confirmed in the spring budget this week.

The headline rates for the relief will remain at 45% for non-touring productions and 50% for touring productions until 2025.

From April 2025 the rates will drop to 30% and 35% respectively, before returning to 20% and 25% in 2026.

The sunset clause of the Museums and Galleries Tax Relief, which would have seen the relief expire in 2024, has also been extended for a further two years until 31 March 2026.

Sharon Heal, director of the Museums Association, said: “We very much welcome this extension of the museums and galleries tax relief. It is has supported ambitious and programming and innovation in museums across the UK and we encourage museums to take advantage of it over the next two years.”

However organisations will no longer be able to claim the tax relief on expenditure outside the UK, as the qualifying expenditure is being changed to apply only to goods and services that are used and consumed in the UK.

The Treasury says this will “align the cultural reliefs with the audio-visual reliefs and ensure these reliefs remain compliant with the UK’s international obligations”.

Productions that have not concluded by 1 April 2024 may continue to claim European Economic Area expenditure until 31 March 2025.