The Brazilian Ministry of Citizenship established new guidelines for Law No. 8,313/91, also known as the Rouanet Law (now called the Federal Law for Cultural Incentives), which allows taxpayers (individuals or companies) to allocate part of the income tax to support cultural projects, as a donation or sponsorship. In practice, the fundraising for the fostered projects occurs through the waiver of tax resources, that are destinated to artistic and cultural productions.
The guidelines were published through Normative Instruction No. 2/2019, which establishes procedures to the presentation, receipts, analysis, homologation, execution, monitoring, legal reporting and assessment of results of the cultural projects financed through the mechanisms of the Federal Law for Cultural Incentives.
The main modification in the law is the maximum amount authorized for funding a project, which was of R$ 60 million (approximately USD 15 million) and was reduced to R$ 1 million (approximately USD 200,000). For portfolios of projects (consisting of a set of projects presented by a company or a group with a common partner), the limit was reduced from R$ 60 million to R$ 10 million (approximately USD 2 million). According to the Brazilian Ministry of Citizenship, these measures intend to “improve the distribution of resources and stimulate small and medium-sized cultural producers to submit more projects”.
Projects related to immaterial and material cultural heritage, such as museums and locations of memory and conservation, as well as projects for the construction and maintenance of theaters and stageplay rooms in cities with a total population of less than 100 thousand are not limited to R$ 1 million. In addition, projects that are fully executed in the North, Northeast and Midwest regions of Brazil will have a maximum amount of R$ 2 million (approximately USD 500,000), and projects executed in the Southern region, the State of Minas Gerais and the State of Espírito Santo will have a limit of R$ 1.5 million (approximately USD 375,000). The purpose is to encourage the decentralization of fostered cultural projects to outside of Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo region.
The modifications also seek to expand cultural access, as well as to implement social counterparts of training and capacitation. Now, producers benefiting from the Federal Law for Cultural Incentives must promote cultural educational actions to the public benefit, including students and teachers of public educational institutions.
The Normative Instruction No. 2/2019 was published in the Official Gazette of April 24, 2019, with immediate effects. More information is available at http://cultura.gov.br/nova-lei-de-incentivo-a-cultura-reduz-de-r-60-milhoes-para-r-1-milhao-teto-de-captacao-por-projeto/