[News] Tax Relief for the UK Games Industry

I was pointed in the direction of an interesting article over on The Guardian website the other day by fellow Processor Ben.

In said article, which you can read in full here, it covers this bit of news...

"Industry trade body Tiga has submitted a fresh report to the treasury claiming that tax relief for the games industry will create jobs and earn millions for the country."

The UK film industry already gets tax relief on its projects, while videogames do not. The report by TIGA submitted to the government uses strong evidence to press for a similar tax relief for games which would mean...

"...20% relief on the UK core expenditure for games costing over £3m to produce, and 25 per cent of the UK core expenditure for game projects budgeted at between £50,000 and £3m."

Game development provides this country with billions of pounds in income, with studios such as Codemasters, Evoulution Studios and Media Molecule turning out fantastic games such as LittleBigPlanet and the Motorstorm series. And thats not to mention the big daddy of sandbox gaming, Grand Theft Auto, which is also created here in blighty.

A tax relief would create more jobs and encourage more studios to set up business in the UK. Perhaps we may even see the return of old studios who have left the UK to re-set up shop in countries that already have tax relief, such as Canada.

"Tiga has estimated that 41% of the jobs lost in the UK games development sector between 2009 and 2011 relocated overseas"

That's lost revenue for the UK as well as jobs.

We've currently got  a growing number of un-employment in Britain, many of which are students fresh from university...who's skills could be adapted to the gaming industry.

Videogames such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 have outsold most blockbuster films, and a large number of popular musical artists. As a form of media, games have never been as popular as they are now.

Labour MP Tom Watson agrees with the report (see his own personal blog account on the situation here), and lets not forget that we almost had this relief before the government came into power. (But scrapped the plans once in power).

We already have a strong base of which to build on in this country with the studios we have producing games now. A tax relief would help to further cement the UK as a great place to do business, and would help those who are looking for work get involved.

You can read the whole report here.