This month the UK government announced that the Orchestra Tax Relief claim rate will continue to stay at 50% for another two years.
Excellent news for leisure-time instrumental groups across the UK! The Spring 2023 UK budget revealed that the chancellor has extended the temporary higher rates for Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) until April 2026. The tax relief rates initially doubled in October 2021 to 50% and were due to go down to 35% after April 2023 – they will now remain at 50% until 31 March 2025, stay at 35% from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, and go back down to 25% from 1 April 2026.
OTR is a government initiative that aims to support instrumental productions in the UK. It provides tax relief on production costs, such as venue hires, artist fees and rehearsal costs. On average groups claim back 14% on their total production costs.
Since setting up the scheme in 2017, Making Music has helped groups claim half a million in production costs from HMRC. These extra funds are vital to the leisure-time music community and support groups to continue to thrive, put on larger scale events, invest in diversifying their repertoire and recruit more members.
This could not have been achieved without the efforts of The Association of British Orchestras (ABO) and other organisations who have campaigned and called on the government to extend the OTR 50% rate, which was initially introduced in the autumn 2021 budget. Our members also played a role by providing feedback as part of ABO’s campaign.
The rate for Theatre Tax Relief is also staying at 40% until April 2026 and will drop down to 20% thereafter.
Find out more about Making Music’s Orchestra Tax Relief service for members, who can claim it and how to make a claim via our OTR resource page
