General national economic measures

*small business relief or other financial support,

*company tax relief

*tax returns and or VAT returns suspended/delayed

*loan repayment

Date of 2020 announcements: 17 March 2020 (see here) and 23 March 2020 (see here).

Fiscal package (HUF 208.6 billion, around €580m), of which:

HUF 142.5 billion (17 March decisions) plus an additional HUF 35.6 billion (23 March decisions) tax and social security cancellation for selected activities in March – June 2020.

HUF 2.1 billion (17 March decisions) plus an additional HUF 16.3 billion (23 March decisions) cancellation of taxes of certain small entrepreneurs
HUF 0.1 billion cancellation of interests and charges on certain unpaid taxes

Deferrals (HUF 3873 billion, around €10,8bn):

HUF 450 billion (interest) and HUF 3423 billion (capital amortisation) loan repayment moratorium for all households and corporate loans up to 31 December 2020.

National measures specific to the music sector or to culture in general

-The music sector was able to benefit from the above-mentioned general measures. The following measures were of particular relevance to independent music companies:

Taxation relief, social contribution tax charge reductions till June 2020 — for companies having more than 30% of revenues from sales of recordings in the 6 months leading to the announcement.
Personal payments not added to corporate tax base calculation for small enterprises, until June 2020.
No tax payment for freelancers until June 2020.

-Umbrella body Music Hungary Association (covering different parts of the local music sector) made the following requests to the government, supported by HAIL, the Hungarian association of independent music companies:

No payment of employer salary tax charges till year end 2020
Establish a support fund to cover up to 50% of non-salary expenses of the related enterprises
Temporary VAT reduction to 5% level (currently 27%) until the end of 2021
Review of policies related to reimbursement of concert tickets
Prefinancing of the self-financing part of successful international/EU applications for Hungarian beneficiaries
Extended taxation moratorium for freelancers and mini-enterprises
Freelancer workers should get a financial support of up to 60% of last year incomes
The contribution of the collection societies to the National Cultural Fund could/should be used for supporting artists in social-needs or distributed according to existing distribution rules.
No payment of social contribution tax after collecting society payouts, the related monies to be distributed to rightsholders
No personal income tax after royalty incomes
Compensation for losses of the collecting societies deriving from public performance royalties shortage
The national public media should consider using more domestic music content
The domestic music ratio in radio programming should be increased by 10-15%
Support for online virtual concerts
Support for strengthening the presence of domestic artists on digital platforms

- November 2020: According to Music Hungary, the Hungarian music industry had received next to no aid throughout the coronavirus crisis, with just €23.5 million finding its way to the sector since March 2020. Of that, €14m went to poorly received government-sponsored ‘warehouse concerts’ (raktár koncertek) held behind closed doors since August 2020. More info here.

Health measures

Covid-19 measures and restrictions in the country can be found on the government's website.

Measures taken by local collecting society organisations

EJI and Artisjus established an extraordinary social support framework to support performers and music authors who had lost income due to missed performances (more info here).

Other music funds available

The regular National Cultural Fund.

Social media and other campaigns to promote music during the crisis

-#mertkelladal campaign (because we need the song): The National Cultural Fund’s department for music (Hangfoglaló) together with the Music Hungary Association launched an initiative for the public, to listen to more Hungarian music and spend more money on digital platforms. They created a playlist on Spotify and asked bands, managers to add songs and create their own playlists under the hashtag #mertkelladal.

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2vBeeBm

Youtube: http://bit.ly/mertkelladalyoutube

-Stay at Home Festival: the Sziget production launched a virtual festival on Facebook, the Stay at Home Festival (https://www.facebook.com/maradjotthonfesztival/) with Hungarian acts, mainly the headliners of their festivals.

Small venues and festivals, like Aurora and Bankito started a same kind of online festival, for indies and small acts.

https://www.facebook.com/events/855077398294249/https://www.facebook.com/events/204043944162483/

Business and other expected losses

The National Cultural Fund developed a survey in 2020 for live music companies to understand how the crisis affected their business, what kind of losses they experienced already, and who was facing bankruptcy. 95,8% of the (893) respondents had to cancel events due to the crisis and the emergency measures taken in reaction. The respondents were mainly musicians and performing artists, but also other professionals like managers, booking agents, sound engineers, etc. 77,2% of the cancelled events were live music performances and 10% were theatre and dance performances. 44% of the companies said they would continue their business for sure, 3% were facing bankruptcy. The majority of events had to be postponed, which then lead to concerns about how this might affect the Autumn 2020 season.

The Hungarian association of independent music companies HAIL also circulated a survey to members and future members to get labels’ assessment and their plans.

Music Hungary also circulated a survey and the results are available here.

For more info:

HAIL - Hungarian Association of Independent Labels - https://hail.hu/ - info@hail.hu

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