Conditions for remuneration and reporting of artistic and cultural interventions

Remuneration may be reported under any of the following three schemes: salary, copyrights and fees

2. 1 - Paid interventions in the form of wages

The intervention of artists in artistic education actions is generally exercised within the framework of a salary relationship. In fact, as soon as an intervention is carried out in a place and according to schedules set by the organiser, the latter is considered as an employer by the Labour Code, with all the consequent consequences in terms of social security contributions and liability. The employer will be responsible for the declaration prior to the hiring, the drafting of an employment contract, the publication of wage sheets, the payment of employer’s contributions and of advance payments of employee contributions due under the general scheme for employed persons. Where the interventions represent less than 30 days per year and by training or educational institution, A flat-rate contribution base may be applied in accordance with the amended Decree of 28 December 1987 fixing the flat-rate base for social contributions due for casual trainers. Performing artists and technicians benefit from a specific unemployment insurance scheme (see below).

The support of the worker is ensured:

cultural structures.

The cultural structures of private law, intervening in the framework of a partnership action directly remunerate the stakeholders. They receive grants from the DRAC or/and the local authorities, or charge their services to local public educational institutions (EPLE) or academic inspections, or more generally to the beneficiaries of arts education actions to which they contribute. The proposed hourly rate for the intervention of an artist or writer with students includes preparation, consultation and time in front of students. The amount of the remuneration is set in negotiation with the artist. The practices indicate that when the remuneration is paid by a cultural structure, the artist receives a gross salary (+ employer charges) within a range of 40 to 80 euros per hour, which can exceptionally go up to 120 euros per hour. Travel costs are covered in certain regions, either by applying a kilometric reimbursement rate (usually 0.30 euro per kilometre) or on a flat-rate basis.

either the school (second degree) or the academic inspection (first degree).

In this case, interventions that correspond to training are paid in vacation hours. The rates applicable to vacancies paid by National Education are as follows:

for the first degree, Circular DE No. 89-026 of 31 January 1989 relating to the First Degree Innovation Fund (RLR: 514-2) and Circular DGF No. 89-62100 of 7 June 1989 refer to the applicable principles. The external services refer to the rate of 30.39 euros gross per hour, by reference to decree no. 56-Amended Regulation No 585 of 12 June 1956 laying down the general system for the remuneration of officials of the State or of non officials engaged as ancillary staff either in teaching or in the operation of examination or competition boards, on the basis of 75 % of Group II of Title I of the "Montpellier scale". One hour of intervention is equivalent to one hour of vacation.

for the second degree: Decree no. 89-497 of 12 July 1989 on the conditions of employment of temporary temporary staff for secondary education (RLR: 847-0), the DAF C4 memo of December 1999 setting out the rate of intervention of artists in artistic expression workshops, DESCO memos No. 99-099 of June 30, 1999 relating to second-degree artistic practice workshops (RLR: 525-8) and no. 2000-057 of 4 May 2000 relating to art workshops in colleges (RLR: 525-8) refer to the applicable rates in this area. The intervention rate is set at EUR 34.30 gross per hour. However, the number of places must not exceed 200 hours per school year at one or more secondary schools.

The amount of the vacation for external speakers in the framework of educational support outside school time was fixed at 15.94 euros per hour in 2008, in application, in particular, Decree No. 96-80 of 30 January 1996 on the remuneration of persons carrying out directed studies and the order of the same day. The number of vacations is not limited.

local authorities or local public institutions.

Nota Bene: the remuneration of the artists who supervise the artistic workshops must be paid equally by the DRAC and the National Education.

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How are hours of intervention reported?

As a general rule, actions supported by the DRAC are carried out within the framework of the objective agreements concluded by the DRAC with artistic and cultural structures or within the framework of specific agreements concerning their educational action. The workers are then employees employed by the structure. As a rule, assistance is declared under the general unemployment insurance scheme.

The special situation of the performing arts

The Ministry of Culture and Communication wanted the hours of intervention in the field of arts and cultural education to be taken into account in the calculation of the hours eligible for unemployment insurance for the intermittent performers. He also hoped that these hours of intervention should be clearly distinguished in the presence and under the responsibility of a teacher or other member of the educational staff, interventions where artists intervene as trainers, in a situation of full responsibility. This distinction was not retained by the reform of Annexes VIII and X to the General Regulation annexed to the Convention of 18 January 2006 on Aid for Return to Employment and Unemployment Benefit (UNEDIC Convention).

The situation following the reform of Annexes VIII and X to the UNEDIC Convention

The hours of work declared by the artists and technicians of the spectacle as interventions in school or educational environment, can be taken into account for the opening of rights to unemployment insurance as defined by Annexes VIII and X of the UNEDIC Convention (within the limit of 55 hours for artists under an employment contract with a duly approved educational institution or 90 hours for artists aged 50 or over on the date of the end of the recognized employment contract for the opening of rights under Article 7 of Annex X above) or the professionalization fund (within the limit of 120 hours) provided that the salaries are paid by the training bodies in which these interventions took place. However, when one or more performing artists and technicians perform in a performance, the institution must remunerate them and declare them as such. The same applies to artistic interventions (rehearsals or shows in the context of a residence for example). Artists then receive fees, and both contribute to the corresponding funds and to the specific unemployment insurance scheme. When workers are paid by the arts and cultural structures, the interventions are reported to the general unemployment insurance scheme, except when the quality of the intervention of an artistic nature is proven (particularly in the context of an artistic residence, resulting in the existence of a show and thus the representation of a work of the mind before an audience).

The subsidized artistic and cultural structures are invited to present in the first quarter of each year a precise statement of the hours thus paid for the interventions in the school environment which took place the previous year (including the identity of the workers, the number of hours worked, the amount of remuneration and the corresponding social security contributions and the places where the interventions are carried out). This document must be attached to the application for renewal of the subsidy addressed to the DRAC and be capable of being sent to the URSSAF funds upon their request.

VAT exemption

Supplemented by a statement of other expenses (travel, teaching materials in particular) incurred in the context of school or extracurricular interventions, these interventions will allow structures to ask tax authorities to be able to be exempt from VAT on specific subsidies or the share of subsidies paid by the DRAC, National Education or local authorities for the financing of their interventions in schools. The exemption from VAT on these subsidies was also the subject of a question written to the Government in 1998. The ministerial response, published in the Official Journal of 19 October 1998 at page 5699, opens a tolerance in the application of Article 261 B of the General Tax Code (CGI). Indeed, this response states:
 "It has thus been accepted that the provision of staff to legal persons governed by public law or to non-profit-making organizations may be exempt from VAT pursuant to Article 261 B of the General Tax Code, provided that, first, the provision is billed at a price which does not exceed the amount of the costs incurred and, secondly, the provision is made for reasons of public or social interest. In the case of services rendered by cultural organizations to a legal person governed by public law, the latter condition is satisfied if the provision of staff is granted for the purposes of an activity not subject to VAT. If these conditions are met, subsidies received for the provision of staff by cultural organisations may therefore be exempt from VAT".

According to Article 5 of Decree No. 88-709 of 6 May 1988, issued pursuant to Article L. 911-6 of the Education Code, an agreement must be signed between the school (EPLE) or the academic inspection and the cultural structure. It must explicitly provide that the subsidy paid by the State or the local authority or the amount of expenditure invoiced to the school does not exceed the amount of the costs incurred for the implementation of arts teaching and activities within the schools (salaries and staff expenses, travel expenses, educational expenses). It is therefore up to the structure to prove this. Activities in school time, as part of educational support, and activities outside school time provided by non-profit organizations fall into the category of services rendered.

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2. 2 Other schemes (copyright and fees)

Interventions may, under certain conditions outlined below, be reported under other regimes.

- artist-author

The sale of a work, the transfer of exploitation rights on a work (for example, its exhibition or reading gives rise to the perception of a right of representation or public reading) are the only two remuneration arrangements covered by the artists-authors regime.

Pursuant to Circular FN-940/97 of 2 April 1998 of the Social Security Directorate, school-based interventions may be declared as ancillary activities provided that:

to be punctual and exercised independently. In the case of visual artists, photographers and writers, presentations of works, artistic workshops, at a limited number of sessions, or courses given in the workshop, or the author’s studio. The scheme does not cover regular and monitored interventions in schools which are by their nature covered by the general scheme.

that they be done for plastic artists, artists affiliated with the Maison des artistes, and writers and photographers of people affiliated with the Agessa. The declaration of interventions under the copyright regime implies, for the person who pays the remuneration, the obligation to contribute to the social protection system of the artist authors as broadcaster.

Gross remuneration from these activities is added to artistic income and is included in the scheme’s contribution base, up to a limit of EUR 4489 for 2007, with this amount being revalued each year.

- professional profession

If the worker is not affiliated to the artists' author scheme, the remuneration paid must be subject to the social scheme of the self-employed, under the exemption threshold (family allowances and CSG CRDS) and lump-sum contributions (sickness insurance, invalidity death, basic and supplementary old age). If he is a member, and if the remuneration for the interventions referred to above is more than EUR 4489 (for 2007), they are fully subject to the social scheme for the self-employed (liberal professions).

This liability is also required, for affiliated author artists, for the portion of income from incidental activities that exceed the ceiling of 4,489 euros (for 2007).

Registered practitioners must also produce a SIRET number.

Under no circumstances should the payment of fees take place if the conditions of a performance performed freely are not met. The remuneration thus paid would otherwise be reclassified as salary by the URSSAF. It is therefore important, in this case, to check beforehand that the intervener is properly registered in the appropriate scheme.