Accounting and art sound like they should go together like oil and water! Look to us to be your creative industry accountants today. For once, let’s forget about the negativity around Brexit, and concentrate on a positive. The UK has a globally recognised pedigree for the arts with a booming creative sector. Creative industries
account for one in eleven jobs, and this sector
contributes £10million to the economy every hour. Not only is the fine arts big business, it also continues to grow. During 2016, the industry grew at twice the rate of the general economy, as people visited exhibitions all over the country. In London, The Tate Modern and National Gallery alone
welcomed over 12 million visitors. With the government seeking to further stimulate artistic revenue by a variety of methods, such as
offering tax relief incentives to encourage the creative sector, there is a gap in expert knowledge that specialist accountants, like Raffingers, can occupy. The Arts, in whatever form, is meant to bring to mind strong emotions. Therefore, a relationship with your accountant can and should be well-balanced, if you’re selective over who you take on as an advisor. Raffingers as your accountant would always ensure that you are offered complete and tailored advice. Raffingers has developed an expertise in the Music, Media and Entertainment sector in order to understand everything from the complexities of withholding tax for touring bands, to setting up the right type of business to handle the advance on an author’s book. We are a group of extremely professional creative industry accountants with a great track record of performance and customer service. While the principles may be the same as for other sectors, it is the detail that matters, in having that knowledge and understanding of the creative industry to make the most of the multiple income sources and tax breaks that go with it. There are a whole host of frequently asked questions from the creative sector, which can include:
- Who looks after the rights and exploitation of my work?
- How does authors averaging work?
- How do I monitor royalties?
- How do I structure any advance payments?
- Are any tax credits available?
- Should I be VAT registered?
- How do I reclaim tax if I’m touring abroad?
Raffingers can assist you to answer any of these questions and more, ensuring that individuals and organisations have the correct and most up to date advice. More importantly, we can remove the added stress of the administration of accounts management, and leave you to do what you do best, to be creative. Our sector knowledge and understanding allows us to be more than just your average accountant, we are specialist creative industry accountants. Our expertise gives us the ability to use our knowledge to deliver strategic business advice to help you achieve your business objectives. We have specialists in areas such as accountancy, tax (including video games and film tax credits), as well as business start-up and growth funding advice. Whether you are a commercial games developer, graphic designer or web developer, a fledging band or already on the road to success, a music promoter or film producer, our team will be able to help with specialist accounting services tailored to your needs, whilst also providing the general accounting and tax services you would expect. Other services where we can provide support include:
- Xero Specialists – cloud-based record keeping software
- Business Planning and Cash Flow Management
- Creative sector tax credit reliefs – e.g. FTC, VGTC
- Raising investment by EIS/SEIS
- Share Option schemes to incentivise key employees
- Year-end Financial Statutory Filings, and Management Accounts
For more information about our Music, Media and Entertainment sector services contact Roy Butcher FCCA, Partner at Raffingers. Contact: roy.butcher@raffingers.co.uk. You can also follow us on
Twitter for more tips and updates.
