Pearle* and the European Festivals Association (EFA) present two updated versions of the Ultimate Guide for Cultural Managers – Artist Taxation and VAT in an International Context 

Joint Press Release

The 2021 updates of the EFA RISE / EFA RISE 2 series What you didn’t know about Europe - The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers – Artist Taxation and VAT - are now available online.

With mobility cautiously seeing the light at the end of the tunnel Live Performance is readying to reopen its physical doors to its artists and audiences and restart touring, residencies and co-productions cross-border. The professional engagements of artists are very often not confined to their own countries. Artists (and other cultural professionals) are highly mobile and ready to accept job offers or performance engagements abroad.

Take for example: a dancer on tour with a group for several weeks in different countries; an actor engaged by a theatre company in one country and invited as a guest playwright in another country; a musician playing in several orchestras and music ensembles in different countries while rehearsing in yet another country; a pop group creating its own music, releasing albums, downloads and streams, and performing in various countries.

In all such situations one will have to deal with Artist Taxation when performing abroad and Value Added Tax (VAT) when selling tickets, providing cultural services or making performances available online. It follows that there will be some practical matters needing to be properly addressed. In these booklets we will help you to understand the consequences of Artist Taxation and VAT in an international context and explain what you must do to comply with the rules. 

These new editions follow the successful synergy partnership between EFA and Pearle* - Live Performance Europe started in 2014, in the context of EFA RISE, to improve general knowledge of the legal and managerial aspects of cross-border cultural cooperation and counts with similar publications on Social Security, Artist Taxation, VAT, Copyright Clearing for Live Events and Visas for Third Country National Artists Travelling to the Schengen Area. In the frame of EFA RISE 2 updates were produced to account for the changes in legislation.

The booklets are available to download in the Pearle* Resource Center and in the EFA Publications. 

These publications are part of the EFA RISE 2 project implemented with the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. These publications reflect the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.