Nathan Thompson
Feb 15, 20172 min
Updated: Aug 2, 2019
What is Theatre Tax Relief (TTR)?
TTR is basically an extra deduction that theatre production companies can claim on their profits when they produce a show.
Who Can Claim?
To be eligible you must meet the following criteria:
A theatrical production company
Produced a qualifying[1] theatrical production
The show must play before a live paying audience to Jo Public, or for educational purposes
Must have a minimum of 25% expenditure within the EEA (European Economic Area)
The production can be based in a single location or a tour (there is a higher rate you can claim for touring productions)
How does it work?
In a nutshell, you produce a separate Profit & Loss Account for each show you produce, and within that you identify the production costs that are in the EEA. These production costs are then used as an extra deduction from your taxable profit (essentially you can claim double the amount of expenses for production costs).
What happens I don’t have any taxable profits?
This is the best bit about TTR! You get a refund from HMRC! Equal to 20% of the loss
Do you have an example?
Sure, imagine your production company, Beardy Productions Limited, produced a show at a local theatre for a week. It was open to Jo Public for £20 a ticket.
It cost the company £10,000 in production costs and £6,000 in running costs. You would be able to claim an extra £10,000 against the profit you made.
So if you made a profit of £5,000 you take an extra £10,000 off your profit to arrive at a loss of £5,000. That £5,000 can be surrendered for a tax refund of £1,000! Imagine how much beard glitter you can buy with that!
[1] A theatrical production is a dramatic production or a ballet that is not specifically excluded by the legislation from being regarded as a theatrical production.
See TTR40020 for more information.