What is a qualifying exhibition for Museums & Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief?

The UK offers several tax relief incentives to support the homegrown arts scene in the UK. Museums & Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief offers companies up to 36% of their costs back for putting on an exhibition in the UK.

Since 2017, over £115 million has been paid out across over 11,000 exhibitions, supporting arts and culture through the pandemic and beyond.

However, only certain exhibitions will qualify for the relief. Knowing the specific rules that qualify is crucial to making a strong, defensible claim.

What makes an exhibition "qualifying" under MGETR?

There are three core criteria HMRC requires for a qualifying exhibition:

• The exhibition must be a curated public display of scientific, historic, artistic or cultural interest
• It must be open to the general public (ticketed or not)
• It must meet the minimum core expenditure threshold:
  • 10% UK spend for periods ending on or after 1 April 2024
  • 25% European for periods before that 1 April 2024

There are some additional requirements for your company to meet, separate to your exhibition, namely that your company must be a charitable company, or a company wholly owned by a charity or local authority.

You can read more about the requirements for your company here: Museums & Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief: An Overview

What does “open to the public” mean?

The relief targets exhibitions open to the public, paid or not. This definition requires the exhibition to be widely available to the public in-person.

This criterion excludes private showings and online or remote exhibitions. However, there is some nuance here. Larger in-person, public exhibitions can include some private showings or a remote element, but the majority of the exhibition must be open to the public.

What exhibitions are automatically disqualified?

Unfortunately, some exhibitions will never qualify for MGETR, even if all the above conditions are met.

Ineligible exhibitions include those where:

• Anything on display is for sale or is alive
• The primary purpose of the exhibition is to advertise goods/services
• It involves a live performance
• It's connected to a competition

There are some nuances to these rules. A gallery can still commission and exhibit works that are later sold by the artist when the exhibition closes. A "merely incidental" live element (like a living sculpture within a larger exhibition, or a fencing display within an historical exhibition) may still be fine — HMRC's concern is when the live element is the main object.

Live performances may be more suited to the Theatre Tax Relief scheme. You can find out more about qualifying productions for TTR here: Which Productions Qualify For Theatre Tax Relief?

Do touring exhibitions qualify?

Touring exhibitions absolutely qualify for MGETR and—bonus!—they attract a higher relief rate.

Unlike many other creative sector tax reliefs, MGETR provides for both Primary Production Companies (PPCs) and Secondary Production Companies (SPCs).

The PPC is usually, but not necessarily, the production company at the first venue. The SPC (or SPCs) is responsible for the exhibition at another venue. Both production companies can claim for MGETR at the higher touring rate.

A touring exhibition must meet the following four conditions:

• Two or more venues
• At least 25% of objects displayed at the first venue must also appear at subsequent venues
• Gap between venues must be under six months
• A PPC must be in place

This higher relief rate for exhibitions (45% before April 2025, 40% after) reflects the additional costs involved in a touring exhibition. Loss-making production companies can surrender their losses at the higher rates and receive a cash credit.

Examples of Qualifying Exhibitions

There is a huge variety of exhibitions that can qualify for MGETR, as the definition is so broad. Curated displays of scientific, historic, artistic or cultural interest could include:

• A solo artist show or retrospective (e.g., a collection of Andy Warhol works)
• Thematic exhibitions (e.g., art from Pacific Islanders)
• Single object displays (e.g., display of a single important dinosaur fossil)
• Immersive installations (e.g., narrated show of wildlife for audiences)
• Scientific or historical exhibitions (e.g., studies of life during WW2)
• Curated displays of objects (e.g., costumes and props from a famous film)

All of these diverse displays can qualify, so long as they are open to the public, meet the expenditure requirements and do not feature anything that would have them excluded.

Documentation Requirements

Alongside evidence of your costs, your apportionments and your qualification as a production company, you must also keep evidence of how your production qualifies.

This could include photo evidence, marketing campaigns or evidence of commissioning between the production company and the original owners of the displayed objects.

This will help you decide which exhibitions are actually eligible and support you in the long run, should HMRC open a compliance check into your claim.

Key takeaways

• Exhibitions must be curated, public, and culturally/historically/scientifically/artistically significant
• The minimum UK expenditure threshold (10%) must be met for recent accounting periods
• Several types of exhibition are automatically excluded; check the list before assuming eligibility
• Touring exhibitions qualify for a higher rate, but must meet additional criteria

If you’re thinking about claiming MGETR, it’s important to get the basics right before embarking on your claim. With thousands of pounds on the line, compliance is critical for your claim.

Get in touch with Myriad’s expert team for a free consultation on your exhibition’s eligibility.