Tiga calls for 30% tax relief rate

UK games industry trade body Tiga has today published its response to the Government’s Consultation on Creative Sector Tax Reliefs.

Tiga long campaigned for tax-breaks for the UK video games industry, and now the relief is to become a reality, the trade body has made a number of recommendations to the Government, having consulted with over 100 developers and publishers.

Most significantly, Tiga has called for relief to be set at flat rate of 30 per cent across eligible products. Alternatively, the trade body suggested that there should be two tiered rates of relief, giving a 30 per cent break for projects budgeted at up to £250,000, and a 25 per cent rate for projects costing over £250,000.

Tiga has also recommended that relief is available for post-release costs, and requested that educational games be eligible for tax breaks.

"TIGA aims to strengthen the UK video games sector and to ensure that the industry supports the wider economic recovery," said Tiga CEO Richard Wilson. "If GTR is designed to support both small budget games and larger projects, provides a significant level of relief and incentivises continuous content creation, then we can achieve these objectives.

"Games are increasingly being developed as a service, with a large amount of the content being created and released post-launch, and the game evolving over time. So it is important that studios are able to claim relief on costs arising after the release of a game.

 "TIGA strongly welcomes the growing political consensus in favour of GTR and the recognition by the UK Coalition Government of the economic and cultural importance of the video games industry. A well designed Games Tax Relief will power the industry forward and contribute to economic growth.”

According to a statement to the press Tiga believes well-planned tax relief will boost investment and job creation in the country, secure over 4,660 direct and indirect highly skilled jobs, invest £188m in jobs and games development, increase the games development sector’s contribution to UK GDP by £283m, and contribute £172m to the HM Treasury.