The draft amendment to the "Culture and Arts Reward Act" proposed by the Ministry of Culture passed the first review by the joint meeting of the Education and Culture Committee and the Finance Committee of the Legislative Yuan. After a two-day review on Dec. 9 and 10, the legislators approved most of the draft, apart from retaining three provisions which will be further discussed at negotiation of party caucuses.
Thanking the legislators from across party lines for their support, Minister of Culture Lee Yung-te indicated that this is a major amendment of the largest scale of the "Culture and Arts Reward Act" since it was last amended in 2002. He added that he looks forward to seeing the amendment pass swiftly the third reading at the Legislative Yuan, in order to facilitate the enactment of incentive measures and guarantee the rights of artists in promoting cultural and artistic development.
According to the Ministry of Culture, the "Culture and Arts Reward Act" is renamed "Culture and Arts Reward and Promotion Act" in the draft, containing a total of 35 articles.
In one of the parts relating to artists' labor rights, a newly added chapter is dedicated to "rights protection," to expand advisory measures for artists in relation to employment insurance enrollment.
Companies as suppliers of culture and arts related government procurement will have to cover the business insurance costs of labor providers who are unable to enroll in occupational accident insurance.
To advance the goal of proactively supporting artists, the Education and Culture Committee and Finance Committee came to a resolution requiring central authorities to either integrate its current regulations or create budget allocations to subsidize and assist artists, whose income are under certain level, to enroll in social insurance.
Additionally, in order to keep track of current cultural and artistic development as basis for policymaking, the draft amendment requires the central authorities every year to provide statistical analysis of each regulatory agency, cultural institution, organization, enterprise and its employees as well as regular reports of art and cultural industry development trends.
To improve taxation mechanisms, individuals or companies that bring in relics and artworks from abroad to be exhibited or auctioned are exempt from paying security deposits, so long as they have provided a written guarantee in advance, a policy that has won the support of legislators. Most legislators are also in support of taxing the incomes from relics and artwork transactions separately; however, tax rates are still under discussion. Policies relating to the reduction of property tax and land value tax for artists and companies, as well as measures to reduce taxes on cultural and artistic companies and amusement tax are pending further discussions at negotiation of party caucuses.
Minister Lee expressed that once the "Culture and Arts Reward and Promotion Act" amendment is passed, the government will have taken a big step on the protection of artists' rights and the cultural industry and the promotion of cultural diversity. He thanked the legislators from across party lines for their support of the cultural industry, adding that the Ministry of Culture will continue to coordinate with legislators based on their suggestions in hope of getting the 'Culture and Arts Reward and Promotion Act' passed swiftly and delivering the incentive programs and guarantees.