Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief

Museums and galleries that meet specific criteria can claim valuable tax relief on the costs of putting on qualifying exhibitions. This relief — Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief (MGETR) — allows eligible companies to claim an additional deduction on their Corporation Tax return, and in some cases receive a cash payment from HMRC if they make a loss.

Who can claim the relief

To claim Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief, your company must maintain a museum or gallery and be either a charitable company or a company wholly owned by a charity or local authority.

Beyond this basic requirement, you must also qualify as either a primary production company or a secondary production company for the exhibition.

Primary production companies

There can only be one primary production company per exhibition. To qualify, your company must:

• Make an effective creative, technical or artistic contribution to the exhibition
• Be actively engaged in planning and decision-making
• Directly negotiate, contract and pay for rights, goods and services
• Be responsible for producing and running the exhibition at a venue

Secondary production companies

If an exhibition is held at two or more venues, there may also be secondary production companies. To qualify as a secondary production company, you must be:

• Responsible for producing and running the exhibition at a specific venue
• Actively engaged in decision-making in relation to that venue

There can be more than one secondary production company for an exhibition.

What makes an exhibition qualify

A qualifying exhibition is a curated public display of an organised collection of objects or works that are of scientific, historical, artistic or cultural interest. This can include a single object.

The UK and EEA spending tests

Your exhibition must meet two geographic spending requirements:

• At least 25% of core costs must be spent on goods or services provided from within the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA) — which includes EU countries plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein
• From 1 April 2024, at least 10% of core costs must relate to activities in the UK specifically

Core costs are those spent on producing the exhibition, and on uninstalling and closing it if the exhibition is open for one year or less.

What doesn't qualify

You cannot claim relief for exhibitions that:

• Are organised in connection with a competition
• Are not held in person (for example, online exhibitions)
• Include a live performance by any person, except where this is incidental
• Display anything that is for sale
• Display anything that is alive

How much you can claim

The relief works by allowing you to claim an additional deduction on your Corporation Tax return. This reduces your taxable profits (or increases a loss).

The additional deduction is the lower of either:

• 80% of total core costs, or
• The amount of core costs on goods or services provided from the UK or EEA (from 1 April 2024, this is the amount of core costs relating to activities in the UK)

Tax credits for loss-making companies

If your company makes a loss, you can surrender some or all of this loss for a payable tax credit — meaning HMRC will pay you cash.

The surrender rate is:

• 40% for non-touring exhibitions
• 45% for touring exhibitions

What counts as a touring exhibition

To qualify for the higher 45% rate, your exhibition must meet additional requirements:

• The exhibition must be held at more than one venue
• At least 25% of the objects or works displayed at the first venue must be displayed at every subsequent venue
• There should be no more than six months between uninstalling at one venue and installation at the next venue
• There must be a primary production company for the exhibition that is within the charge to Corporation Tax
• The primary production company must intend from the planning stage that the exhibition will be touring

When and how to claim

You claim Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief on your Company Tax Return.

Time limits for claiming

The deadline for making, amending or withdrawing a claim depends on when your accounting period began:

• For accounting periods beginning before 1 April 2024: you have up to one year after the company's filing date
• For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024: you have up to two years after the end of the period of account the claim relates to

HMRC may agree to accept late claims in some circumstances.

What you need to submit

If you submit your return on or after 6 April 2026, you must include form CT600P (the Creative Industries supplementary page).

You'll need to calculate:

• The amount of additional deduction due to your company
• Any payable credit due

You must also submit an additional information form as evidence for your claim. For each exhibition, you need to provide:

• The title and start date of the exhibition
• Statements of the amount of core expenditure, split between UK or EEA and non-UK or non-EEA
• A breakdown of expenditure by category

HMRC provides an online tool to help you check if your exhibition qualifies for the relief, as well as videos, webinars and a detailed manual with worked examples of how the relief is calculated.

Sources

• Claiming Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief for Corporation Tax

This article provides general guidance based on current HMRC rules. For advice specific to your situation, speak to your accountant.