Private funding for culture is regulated in by the Law on Charity and Sponsorship (1993), the Law on Patronage (2018),the Law on Personal Income Tax (2002) and the Law on Corporate Income Tax (2001) (see chapter 4.1.4).
Data about the sponsorship provided and received by legal persons are collected by the Lithuanian Department of Statistics. According to this data, legal persons working in the fields of creative, arts and entertainment activities, libraries, archives, and museums received more than 4 million EUR sponsorship in 2020. Compared to other areas, these activities receive three times less support than education, and almost 8 times less than sport, amusement and recreation activities. The total amount provided by sponsors for culture did not change significantly over the last five years.
Table 45: Support received by legal persons in various fields in 2015–2020 (in EUR thousand)
| Field | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Creative, arts and entertainment activities Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities | 4 768.9 | 4 316.3 | 4 908 | 5 179.7 | 4 407.3 | 4 049.1 |
| Education | 11 481.8 | 14 813.9 | 12 325.4 | 13 930.6 | 15 451.9 | 13 784.0 |
| Sports, amusement and recreation activities | 31 867.4 | 34 226.7 | 31 520.0 | 35 001.6 | 38 399.0 | 29 515.7 |
According to Article 34 of the Law on Personal Income Tax, after the end of the tax period, the tax administrator must, at the request of a resident of Lithuania and in accordance with the procedure established by the Government, transfer to Lithuanian entities that are entitled to sponsorship under the Law on Charity and Sponsorship an amount not exceeding 1.2 % of the income tax payable on the basis of an annual income tax return. According to the data of the Lithuanian State Tax Inspectorate, in 2019, at the requests of the residents of Lithuania, the inspectorate transferred a total of 21 096 378 EUR to 23 492 organisations entitled to receive sponsorship. However, the data on how much of this of sponsorship went to artists and cultural organisations is not available.
The amendment to the Law on Corporate Income Tax in 2013 stimulated the private funding of Lithuanian cinema. Article 172 of the Law states that in calculating corporate income tax, funds granted free of charge to a Lithuanian filmmaker for the production of a film or a part thereof in the Republic of Lithuania may be deducted from taxable income (more about the Law see chapter 4.1.4). According to the information of the Lithuanian Film Centre, the Film Tax Incentive is increasing each year. In 2021, filmmakers received more than 15 mln Euro of gratuitous investments by taking advantage of the Incentive. Compared with the results of 2020 the sum of financial aid has grown by 26%. That is the highest sum received through the whole period since 2014, when the Incentive was started. By taking advantage of the Incentive, international filmmakers have spent as much as 37.9 mln Euro and have surpassed the spending of the previous years significantly. The number of financed films has grown as well. A total of 71 new films that took advantage of the Incentive were financed in 2021, of those – 40 were domestic, 19 foreign productions and 12 co-production film projects.
The Law on Patronage, adopted by the Seimas in 2018, has not yet made a significant impact on private funding for culture. The Law provides that the title of a national patron is awarded to a person who has provided at least one million EUR in support to the patronage project(s) at the state or more than one municipality level. A title of patron of a municipality is awarded to the person who has provided at least 150 000 EUR in support of a patronage project(s) in the municipality with a permanent population of 25 000 or less, and in the case of the municipalities with more than 25 000 permanent residents, the title of a municipal patron is awarded to a person who has provided at least 250 000 EUR support for the implementation of sponsored project(s) at municipal level. The Government assesses the compliance of the projects with the requirements of this Law, recognises the projects as appropriate to patronage, grants the title of the national patron and adopts decisions on the loss of the title of national patron on the proposal of the Patronage Council. In 2018, the Patronage Council awarded the first title of national patron for the one million EUR support for the Balbieriškis Church restoration project. During the 2019, 2020 and 2021 the Patronage Council awarded the titles of the patrons of municipality to 9 persons and enterprises.
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