Orchestra Tax Relief

Breaking even – the finances of running a music group (online event)

Often we think of income ‘only’ in terms of funding, subscriptions or ticket sales. There definitely is a lot to delve into on those three topics, but is there more we could be exploring? Are we thinking about the whole financial picture?

70% of Making Music performing groups and 58% of volunteer promoters break even every year; but 15% and 23% respectively regularly make a loss. So finances are always a topic groups are thinking about, to maintain that balancing act of breaking even, yet remaining accessible to participants and audiences in their community.

Location

Online
United Kingdom
See map: Google Maps

Making the most of your Making Music membership (online event)

 

Your Making music membership offers a wealth of benefits. They are designed to support you running your music group, to save time, effort and money, as well as offer ideas and inspiration.

But are you making the most of your membership? In this event we will explain what you have access to - and how we can help.

We'll talk about some of the main benefits:

Location

ONLINE
United Kingdom
See map: Google Maps

Learn more about choirs and Orchestra Tax Relief (online event)

Over the last 20 years governments have introduced various creative tax reliefs to enable organisations to claim back some of their production costs. Two of these – Orchestra Tax Relief and Theatre Tax Relief – are already being used by Making Music members to claim back an average 23% of their concert and event costs. Especially now that a higher rate of relief has been made permanent in the spring budget, these tax reliefs can make a significant contribution to groups’ budgets and facilitate growth and activity.

 

Location

ONLINE
United Kingdom
See map: Google Maps

Increasing the income stream: an OTR case study

Dr Alice Carter, treasurer of Henley Symphony Orchestra, explains how claiming Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) has bridged the income gap in difficult financial times

Why did your group decide to claim OTR?

The financial benefit is substantial. This has kept us afloat through some very challenging times. We lost a major sponsor a few years ago and OTR has kept us going!

Orchestra Tax Relief overview: What it is, who can benefit and how we can help

Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) is a government initiative for instrumental groups (not only orchestras!) where you could receive a payment from HMRC equal to a percentage of your production costs.

Despite being called 'Orchestra Tax Relief':

  • the initiative can apply to many types of instrumental group – so don’t be put off if your group is not a traditional orchestra 
  • you don’t have to be paying tax to claim it.   

Groups who put on eligible performances can submit a claim to HMRC each year for the payment. 

Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) overview - webinar

This online webinar will introduce you to Orchestra Tax Relief, a new source of income for instrumental groups with 12 or more performers, explaining what it is and how your group can benefit from it.

 

You can find out more about OTR, including whether you are eligible and how to claim, in our resources:

Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR), part 1: Is it for you?

This introduction is the first of three documents on Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR). It gives you an overview of what it is and how it works, and an overall idea if this is something your group would like to look into.

To help you decide we also have two additional documents –

Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR), part 2: Getting set up

This introduction is the second of three documents on Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR). It gives you an overview of how to set up and run a production company to claim OTR. 

OTR Toolkit: setting up a production company

This toolkit is part of our 'OTR, Part 2' guidance and explains how to set up and run a production company.

If you have not read our guidance (on what OTR is and how to claim), we suggest you read it before using this toolkit:

OTR Toolkit: running a production company

This toolkit is part of our 'OTR, Part 2' guidance and explains how to set up and run a production company.

If you have not read our guidance (on what OTR is and how to claim) we suggest you read it before using this toolkit:

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