Tax breaks on horizon for video games industry

The government has signalled it is ready to investigate tax breaks for
developers of video games to enable them to compete with similar incentives from
countries such as France which was given a go-ahead from the EC to allow 20% tax
relief for those who met certain cultural criteria.

‘We have now succeeded in persuading colleagues across government that we
should look again at this issue, particularly in light of the French situation,’
Margaret Hodge, creative industries minister, told a games industry seminar in
Westminster yesterday, the Financial Times reports.

Hodge stressed the UK games industry would ‘need to demonstrate a genuine
market failure’ for her department to persuade the Treasury to introduce a
similar scheme.

‘We are nervous about these forms of tax relief,’ she said. ‘Because there is
a fiscal squeeze, we don’t want to get into an international Dutch auction where
we vie to outbid each other on tax relief.’

Further reading:

Read
the Financial Times story