A new finance bill due to be introduced after the summer could provide a vital lifeline for an at risk north-east museum.
The Gordon Highlanders, in Aberdeen, has been struggling to stay afloat in the midst of the oil and gas downturn due to a drastic cut in the number of corporate events. Bookings for conferences, training days and dinners have all fallen by nearly 60% in the past three years.
As a result a fundraising drive was launched to find the £300,000 it needs in order to keep its doors open.
Aberdeen City Council recently pledged its support to the facility.
And now changes in tax relief for museums and galleries will allow further relief for the facility.
Museums and galleries will be able to claim a credit worth up to £100,000 of qualifying expenditure on exhibitions that are toured, and £80,000 on non-touring exhibitions
Last night Bryan Snelling, museum chief executive, welcomed the new bill which he said would be a big help for the museum.
He said: “In terms of the new tax relief proposals in the upcoming finance bill, we are extremely pleased about this.
“Up until now, the tax relief was only available to those museums who offered free entry, which were primarily, although not exclusively local authority museums, but this bill now opens up the tax relief opportunities to support independent museums like ourselves who charge for admission.
“This will now allow us to claim tax relief for our permanent exhibitions as well as for our temporary exhibitions that we change on an annual basis.
“In general this is very welcome for the entire museums and galleries sector and one which we are pleased to see happening.”
Mr Snelling said that despite the tax relief the museum would still have to make use of all other means available to them to remain open.
He added: “It’s a shame. If you look up and down the country at the moment there are a number of museums going out of business due to a lack of funding. It’s not endemic but there’s a starting to feel the pinch.”
