STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
initial inquiries about possible funding, and are unable to reach the appropriate officer, or find
that there is no appropriate officer at all.
Additional frustrations include the non-eligibility of individual artists for certain funds. (…)
This, plus the lack of administrative resources generally within the sector, has led to a situation
where street arts artists feel that making applications is a waste of time.
With notable exceptions there is little knowledge or experience of the specific problems and
opportunities involved with street arts within the funding system at national or regional level.
This means the decision making process for funding is particularly difficult for officers as well
as practitioners” (Felicity Hall, “Strategy and Report on Street Arts”, January 2002).
1.1.3. Taxation of incomes 369
The main problem concerning taxation derives from the fact that each country has its own rules,
different from the others, and that rules for companies performing abroad – or, vice versa, for
festivals inviting foreign companies – rely upon bi-lateral accords, changing again from country
to country.
Live performance organisations and artists working abroad have to pay withholding taxes to the
tax authorities even if they are performing in another EU country. When returning to their EU
country residence, then, they have to deal again with their national tax authorities, which might
also impose taxes on the foreign income.
Bilateral tax treaties have been signed between all EU countries just to avoid this “double
taxation”. According to those treaties, a live performance company or artist who has already
paid taxes abroad should receive financial compensation in his/her home country in the form of
a tax credit or a tax exemption. However, the mobile live performance organisation and artist
will still have to complete all the formalities in order to clear the tax situation with the residence
country’s tax authorities and in order to avoid “double taxation” or excessive taxation.
The administrative workload required avoiding double taxation and excessive taxation clearly
discourages artists and companies from being mobile or from hosting mobile organisations. As
the landscape is fragmentary and complicated, it is almost impossible that managers know
perfectly the tax regulation of all EU countries, and that they are able to calculate exactly the
complete cost of productions and incomes – on which taxation is imposed. Festivals therefore
have often to engage professionals who deal with the issue, thus adding other expenses to the
budget. The general feeling of the professionals in the live performance sector is that “the most
mobile sector in the EU is discriminated against when providing services in other EU countries
due to specific tax legislation which does not exist for any other “mobile” economic sector in
the EU” 370 .
The solution proposed by all the interviewees would be to find a common rule to be shared at
the EU level.
369 For a survey of problems, different taxation systems in Europe and useful resources to keep up-to-date, see also
“Tax and social security. A basic guide for artists and cultural operators in Europe”, by Judith Staines, March
2004. A brief scheme summarizing national rules is included in the Annexes of the present paper.
370 From "Study on the impediments to mobility…"
268
PE 375.307