Telegraph: A report published last week showed audiences have fallen by a third at theatres across Spain since the government raised the sales tax on cultural events.
The price of theatre tickets rocketed in September when VAT rose from eight to 21 per cent in an emergency measure to boost government coffers and reduce the burgeoning public deficit.
5 comments:
Today in Foundations II we talked about the short time period in which U.S. theatre was federally funded during the depression. It was only for four years, and never again (it seems) will theatre be federally funded and supported on a large scale. There isn't a "national theatre" like there is in European countries. I find it depressing that countries which would seem to be ideal for theatre situations (where the government subsidies and funds theatres) are now undergoing drops in theatre attendance due to high taxes on tickets. Here we have Spain losing 1.8 million theatre viewers over the span of a year. It's not just in America that the arts are easily taxed and given low funds- but it's becoming more of a world-wide problem in these harsh economic times. The federally funded theatre in America in the 1930s was purposed to give artists jobs, which it did. In Spain currently, 600 jobs have been lost due to the tax increases. Maybe this economic depression is different from the one in the 1930s, but something has to give, and I have no doubt that eventually the arts will gain favor again, as they realize that the youth needs arts jobs as much as they need labor/factory and business/finance jobs.
I definitely agree with Kelly on this one. I found it to be really interesting today to learn about the federal theatre fund which took place at the end of the Great Depression in America. Some of the best American dramas come out of this time period, which is something interesting to observe. However, I find it to be so incredibly sad to read about the situation with theatre in Spain. It seems that all theaters are struggling in Spain, but the smaller theaters are basically going to have to shut down altogether. It is awful that the people of Spain will be deprived on the culture that theatre provides for a society of people. To make the situation worse, 600 jobs are lost. Hopefully the Spanish government will open their eyes and remedy this issue in the near future.
I remember reading the article about the theatre selling carrots to avoid the cultural activity tax and found that extremely funny. It's a sad reality that things like this have to be done to avoid a 21 percent tax. I think a tax this high in any type of industry is obscene. I think it is extremely sad to see the theatre having to cancel a performance due to this. At the same time the people that were to be hired are even more in a bind. I can see those arts having to go to other countries because of the tax.
It is very depressing and sad to see this kind of situation happening in Spain. I understand that some countries may not have well-developed theatrical world and have less people who are interested in attending these productions. However, looking at this, this makes me more sad. I think there are several causes; obviously, less fund and hight cost of ticket led to this situation, making people reluctant to see plays. Also, because the production gets less fund, they create less quality plays with less casts. However, I feel like there is no solution as long as the government helps them or there are more awareness of drama to people. Looking at the report of the audience's drop, I feel that is very significant number, so I really hope that younger people gets more interest in drama and the government finds a solution to the problem.
What's amazing to me is that Spain's government thought that taxing live theatre events up the nose was going to be a good source of revenue in the first place. It must say something about Spanish devotion to the arts that would make such a potentially politically damaging move attractive. The article states a 33% drop in attendance, amounting to 1.8 million fewer butts in seats. That means that before the tax, Spanish theatre could count on 5.4 million ticket holders per anum, or around 11% of their 48 million companeros. That got me thinking, how does this compare to the U.S.? Should the feds tax us similarly? Perhaps to pay for some of the oil spill clean-ups that lately seem to be blossoming like the proverbial black crocus? Turns out, at least according to these guys: http://www.statista.com/statistics/193034/attendance-at-live-theatre-events-in-the-us-since-2003/, we do a little better! 40 - 50 million Americans per year from 2003 - 2010 went to a live theatrical event. Even at it's lowest during that period (39 million in 2009, a bad year all around), per capita U.S. theatre attendance stood at above 12%. Of course, 73.4 million Americans attended a major league baseball game that year, but half as good as baseball is nothing to shake a hot dog at. Currently there is no Federal live event tax, although some states, perhaps most notably Nevada, have jumped on the Spanish banda vagon and charge an event tax on tickets. Hopefully the Feds will figure out all the revenue they've been missing out on and get a piece of the action for themselves. After all, is it fair for these fat cat regional theatres to live high off the land while oil executives scrounge and scrape to pay all the taxes and fines for a little oopsy-spill every once or twice in a week? Viva Espana!
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