TTR60010 - Claims: how relief is claimed
Theatre Tax Relief (TTR) is a corporation tax relief. The theatre production company (TPC) must claim the relief for each relevant accounting period through Corporation Tax Self Assessment (CTSA). The TPC must complete the appropriate section (“Information about enhanced expenditure”) in the CT600 tax return form. The TPC must also complete the CT600P Creative Industries supplementary page. Guidance and a copy of the CT600P are available on GOV.UK.
For claims made on or after 1 April 2024, the tax return must also be accompanied by an additional information form, completed before or on the same day as the tax return is submitted. This form must contain the required supplementary information (see TTR60020).
A list of recognised suppliers that provide software for tax returns and supplementary pages is available at Corporation Tax: commercial software suppliers (GOV.UK). Questions about the software being used should be directed to the software or service provider.
From 1 April 2019, all claims which are made in an amended CTSA and that are not made through through the online COTAX gateway, must include a completed CT600 and a corporation tax computation.
Additional deduction
The TPC should indicate that it is claiming TTR using the software that it is submitting its return with. All returns are now expected to be filed online. The relevant boxes to complete are as detailed below depending on the return version used.
| Description | CT600 Version 3 Box number |
|---|---|
| Tax due | 525 |
| Creatives tax credit | 540 |
| Amount claimed | 545 |
| Amount payable | 570 |
| Creatives core expenditure (not supported by all software) | 663 |
| Creatives additional deduction | 665 |
| Enhanced expenditure | 670 |
| Payable creatives tax credit | 885 |
The company should also tick box 658 to confirm it has completed an additional information form.
Example
A TPC incurs total expenditure of £450k on a qualifying production. Of this expenditure, £400k is core expenditure. £300k (75%) of that core expenditure is UK expenditure and £100k (25%) is non-UK expenditure. The company is entitled to the following deductions:
- £450k 'ordinary' deduction, plus
- £300k additional deduction (the core UK expenditure is less than 80% of £400k, so it all qualifies (TTR55020)).
Giving a total deduction of £750k.
The TPC has profits of £200k before tax, meaning it has a loss of £100k after the additional deduction. It decides to surrender this loss in full. The applicable credit rate (see TTR10800) is 45%, giving a tax credit of £45k.
When completing the CT600P:
- Total core expenditure for the accounting period is £400k. This amount should be entered in box P290A.
- UK core expenditure for the accounting period is £300k. This amount should be entered in box P290B.
- The additional deduction for the accounting period is £300k. This amount should be entered in box P290C.
- The loss surrendered for the accounting period is £100k. This amount should be entered in box P290D.
- The amount of tax credit for the accounting period is £45k. This amount should be entered in box P290E.
Note: if the TPC was claiming tax relief for multiple theatrical productions, the combined figures across all productions should be included in boxes P290A to P290E.
The CT600P then calculates the amount of credit used to discharge tax liabilities in box P325, and the payable credit amount in box P330. The TPC has no outstanding liabilities so P325 equals 0 and P330 equals the full tax credit amount of £45k.
When completing the CT600:
- Box 540 must equal box P325. This then feeds into boxes 545 and 570.
- The company has not received any surrendered expenditure credit from a fellow group company, so it does not need to use box 614.
- The company should tick box 658 to confirm it has completed an additional information form.
- Box 663 must equal box P310.
- Box 665 must equal box P315.
- Box 885 must equal box P330.
Supplementary information
Claims should be supported by certain additional information, using the additional information form. There are two cases with differing requirements:
- productions which are completed within a single accounting period, and
- productions that span more than one period.
Each of these cases is covered at TTR60020.