It’s taken seven long years, but the UK’s video games industry has won a significant battle to claim Government tax breaks. At the end of March 2014 (and as we reported in a blog post here from November 2012), the European Union Commission has reached a decision to grant ‘cultural’ tax breaks to the UK’s video game industry.
Film and theatre production companies already benefit from being able to claim back 25% of their qualifying production costs and now the games industry can do the same. It appears that around a quarter of computer games made in Britain would qualify against a set of criteria including British locations, characters and speech as well as the use of British talent, including developers, programmers, composers, designers, animators and studio facilities.
Rachel Austin, an accountant at Deloitte said ‘the relief will provide a huge boost to an industry that has faced fierce competition in recent years from developers in countries such as Canada and France, where tax incentives are already offered.’
Film and theatre production companies already benefit from being able to claim back 25% of their qualifying production costs and now the games industry can do the same. It appears that around a quarter of computer games made in Britain would qualify against a set of criteria including British locations, characters and speech as well as the use of British talent, including developers, programmers, composers, designers, animators and studio facilities.
Rachel Austin, an accountant at Deloitte said ‘the relief will provide a huge boost to an industry that has faced fierce competition in recent years from developers in countries such as Canada and France, where tax incentives are already offered.’
The UK video game industry’s stats remain in line with how they stood in 2012. It employs 9,000 people and contributes around £1bn to the economy each year (The Independent Game Developers Association, or TIGA). TIGA’s boss Richard Wilson is understandably delighted with the news which he has campaigned for and championed for years. ‘[this tax relief] will create jobs, boost investment and enable the production of more British video games’. He predicted that tax relief for the video games sector would cost £96m, but should safeguard almost 5,000 direct and indirect jobs, offer £188m in investment expenditure by studios and generate an additional £172m for the Treasury.
Thanks in part to these new tax breaks, the industry will benefit from more jobs for UK talent and perhaps most importantly, the exodus of talent (otherwise known as the ‘brain drain’) that we have experienced in recent years will slow. Global Recruiter has suggested that over 50% of the advertised jobs aimed at UK-based programmers are for jobs in North America with companies with very deep pockets while only 20% are for UK-based jobs and the hope is that this trend will, over time, reverse itself.
Here at Asset Resourcing, we believe wholeheartedly in the future of the UK gaming industry and the dearth of talent we produce and we have some fantastic opportunities. Have a look through our listed roles and if there’s something that fits the bill, let us know and we’ll do all we can to help you get to where you want to be.
Thanks in part to these new tax breaks, the industry will benefit from more jobs for UK talent and perhaps most importantly, the exodus of talent (otherwise known as the ‘brain drain’) that we have experienced in recent years will slow. Global Recruiter has suggested that over 50% of the advertised jobs aimed at UK-based programmers are for jobs in North America with companies with very deep pockets while only 20% are for UK-based jobs and the hope is that this trend will, over time, reverse itself.
Here at Asset Resourcing, we believe wholeheartedly in the future of the UK gaming industry and the dearth of talent we produce and we have some fantastic opportunities. Have a look through our listed roles and if there’s something that fits the bill, let us know and we’ll do all we can to help you get to where you want to be.