Taxing times

If you want just one example of the way in which Brexit has totally shafted the creative industries, look no further than the new VAT rules that came into force in July. As Daniel Dylan Wray discovered, you need an Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) number for everything to go smoothly - which is fine if you're a multinational with £3,000 in loose change, but not if you're a DIY artist, tape label or independent record shop already operating on a shoestring.

Wray's interviewees reported their frustrations at dealing with red tape and countless forms, the damaging extra charges and delays, and constantly having to come up with quick-fix workarounds. European business has simultaneously fallen off a cliff and become a bewildering Kafkaesque bureaucratic and logistical nightmare in which items are continually rejected by customs and returned but no one seems able to explain why.

Wray rightly makes the point that the effects of all of this will not be merely economic - they will also be cultural. How many niche artists, labels or shops will be inclined to give up trying to ship abroad - or indeed to give up altogether?

Add this to other harmful consequences of Brexit (such as delays to vinyl pressing and packaging production, and the visa rules impacting touring), the unscrupulous practice of venues and companies profiting from a share of merch desk sales (as recently exposed and bemoaned by Tim Burgess and Peter Hook, among others) and the acute crisis facing the live music industry due to the latest wave of the pandemic (a sharp drop in ticket sales, gig cancellations due to artists testing positive), and the picture is horribly bleak.