Call for Gadget Levy to Fund UK Creatives.
Olivia Colman, John Nettles and Joanne Harris are among dozens of high-profile artists calling for a portion of gadget sales revenue in the UK to go into a fund for performers and creators.
In a letter in Tuesday’s Times newspaper, they claim a centralised “Smart Fund” could generate up to £300m per year for the UK’s creative sector.
Call for Gadget Levy in the UK
The levy would be between 1% and 3% of the overall price of a device.
However, critics say it would amount to “a new tax” on consumers.
It would apply to everything that can “store and download creative content”.
This includes laptops, PCs and smartphones, said a group of artist industry organisations behind the idea.
There are no official proposals for such a scheme, but the artist Yinka Shonibare described it as “a no-brainer. Currently there isn’t any effective way for creators to be recompensed when their work is downloaded and stored by audiences,” he said.
However, Tech UK, a network for the country’s tech sector, said it sounded like a “new tax” on consumers. “It is an arbitrary tax on consumers that is hugely bureaucratic to manage, and with no transparency on how funds are disbursed and spent,” said a spokeswoman.
“Shoppers buying a new phone or laptop might have a lot of questions about why they should have to pay such additional charges, when they already pay a significant amount of VAT.”