The regulation of fiscal policies and tax laws in the cultural domain is the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance.
The Arts Patronage Act was introduced in 1986 and was followed by new laws, particularly the 1999 Statute of Patronage (Law 74/99), which regulates the different types of patronage and sponsorship, enlarges the area to include patronage of education, environment, sport, science and technologies, and increases the tax incentives available (the highest level is for long term contracts). Changes introduced in 2007 limited fiscal benefits to the public and non-profit sectors (Law 52A/2006).
A number of cultural actors have expressed the opinion that the Arts Patronage Law is too complex and therefore of limited practical use. They argue that it should be revised and made more flexible.
Performing artists are exempt from VAT (Chapter II, Section I, Article 9, paragraph 16b of the VAT Regulation Code).
Benefits associated with income from intellectual property: income from ownership rights in literary, artistic or scientific work, including income from the sale of unique works of art and income from educational and scientific works, when earned by authors resident in Portugal, provided that they are the original owner, are assessed for personal tax purposes at only 50% of their value, net of other benefits. These provisions exclude income from works not of a literary, artistic or creative nature, works of architecture and advertising work (Items 1 and 2 of Article 56 of the Tax Exemption Act).
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