Last week, the report “Let the Music Move – A New Deal for Touring” about the problems of EU artists on the EU market after Brexit has been published. This year, the number of shows has fallen with 50% when compared to 2019. The report gives good reecommendations for improvement, but there are also tax measures possible. We have written that the UK needs to change it tax treaty policy to support UK artists.
Best would be not to include Article 17 anymore in UK tax treaties. That would make UK artists much more competitive on foreign markets and give the UK more tax revenue.
If the Uk prefers to keep Article 17 in new tax treaties, then three restrictions are needed to help UK artists abroad:
- Minimum threshold of £20,000 per person per year, with which the smaller and medium sized artists would not have tax problems (see Article 16(1) US Model).
- Limited scope of Article 17(2), with which independent production companies remain outside the scope of the article (see Article 16(2) US Model).
- Insert the right to deduct expenses and file normal tax returns in Article 17 of a tax treaty.
Altogether, this change in UK tax treaty policy would improve the position of UK artists in Europe.
The report “Let the Music Move – A New Deal for Touring” can be found here: https://www.ukmusic.org/news/g...
Our letters to UK Music and the Chancellor of the Exchequer can be found at the downloads.
