Friday 4 January 2013

Tax relief for TV and video games

Apologies for starting the new year by talking about tax, however I thought that draft legislation (see page 385 onwards) published by HMRC last December might be of interest to readers, as it sets out the proposed tax reliefs for high-end television, animation production and video game development for inclusion in the Finance Bill 2013. HM Treasury has also published a response to the consultation on creative sector tax reliefs. Comments on the draft legislation are invited by 6 February 2013.

In HM Treasury's response to the consultation, David Gauke, the Exchequer Secretary, said that these new targeted incentives support the Government's ambition to make the UK the technology centre of Europe, and that the new reliefs looked to build on the success of the film tax relief, which has supported over £5 billion of investment into British films.
HM Treasury also noted that responses to the consultation set out a clear case for the need to support skills development within these creative industries. David Gauke confirmed that, as announced at the Autumn Statement, the Government will introduce additional support for skills and talent development within the film, television and video games sectors, to come into effect alongside the new creative sector tax reliefs in April 2013.

Both the additional support of skills development and the increased tax relief will be welcomed by the television, animation and video games industries.
A summary of the proposed high-end television tax relief can be found here and of the video games tax relief can be found here.

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