TIGA proposes 20% tax break on £6m budgets

TIGA wants UK developers to qualify for a 20 per cent tax break on game budgets over £6 million.

The industry association announced the plan in its new manifesto, which outlines key strategies in regards to tax breaks and education.

TIGA Chairman Jason Kingsley states in the manifesto foreword –which you can read here – that tax break-applicable games should pass a cultural test, scoring against criteria of European heritage and game locations, languages, innovation, narrative, location of development and key development staff.

He also states that games tax relief should be calculated along similar lines to the existing relief for the British film industry.

An independent organisation is described as being the best method of administering this kind of cultural testing.

Another of the major outlined manifesto desires is a three-tier benefit system designed to reflect average production budgets of games for different platforms and from different studio sizes.

These include breaks of 20 percent of core expenditure for budgets above £6 million, 25 percent for £3-6 million budgets, and 30 per cent for budgets over £100,000 but under £3 million.

Finally, Kingsley states that relief should be extended for games with a budget of £50,000 or more if relief is to assist in the production of culturally British mobile games.

The manifesto foreword also states that it expects to safeguard £457m in development expenditure over five years.