Tax Breaks for UK Gaming Industry in Budget 2012

[+John. Subscriber¹]

The other big budget news for the tech sector was the pledge for tax breaks for the games industry.

It plans to introduce corporation tax reliefs from April 2013 for the video games, animation and high end television industries, but all will subject to State aid approval and consultation.

Richard Wilson, chief executive of video games industry trade body Tiga, had spent the last four years lobbying for these: "This is a brilliant decision by the government and terrific news for the UK video games industry.

"It is also a decisive victory won by Tiga through audacity, determination and endurance," he said.

"Like a boxer knocked down by his opponent, we refused to accept defeat and kept getting back in the ring. This victory will benefit not just the UK games development and digital publishing sector but also the wider UK economy."

Mr Wilson predicted that tax relief for the video games sector should generate and safeguard 4,661 direct and indirect jobs, offer ?188m in investment expenditure by studios, increase the games development sector's contribution to UK GDP by ?283m and generate ?172m for the Treasury.

In 2010, the then Chancellor Alistair Darling promised tax incentives for developers, a pledge that he never delivered because Labour lost the next election.

The news comes as struggling video games retailer Game said that it intended to file for administration.

Source: BBC News

[MightyJordan]

The anti-gaming s**t-rags have gone off on one now, trying to spin the budget into a whole anti-games tirade... http://www.computerandvideogames.com/340973/wrong-games-tax-breaks-rob-our-pensioners-sun-metro-sound-the-alarm/

Put your ignorant hats on, ladies and gents; two of Britain's biggest anti-games newspapers have noticed those silly old video games have come off well in the 2012 Budget - and they're furious.

First up is the Metro (that of "gamers can't tell real world from fantasy" fame), which fills a quarter of its front page with a giant Grand Theft Auto logo. Wait, what's that next to it? Oh, a disgruntled granny.

You see, while us 'computer game' people are RAKING it in (the estimated 44 closed UK studios since 2008 have only moved to Canada on holiday) pensioners are being forced to pay a ?3bn 'granny tax'. It's almost as if George Osborne has been playing one of those GTA games, causing frothing-at-the-mouth rage and the burning desire to attack the nearest pensioner. With benefits. Then to make it worse, he's teabagged the hot food industry with a pasty tax. The monster.

The Sun (you'll remember it from this week's terrorists plotting on Call of Duty front page) follows up Metro's game-hating with the cover headline 'WRONG TROUSERS', alongside an illustration of Chancellor George Osborne in the style of Wallace & Gromit - a reference to the tax breaks proposed for the creative industries.

The Murdoch paper also points to that 'granny tax', and quotes a cab driver named Grant who's not happy about the rising price of cigarettes and booze.

Alongside the downers, The Sun points out IN BIG BOLD LETTERS that unlike smokers, boozers and grannies, creative industries such as TV and games sectors are being considered for tax RELIEF. The cheek.

Now for some science: Official budget documents show that - following consultation between the government and the games industry - ?15m will initially be spent on games development tax relief, followed by up to ?35m a year later.

That's a total of ?50m. Number 10 probably spends more on floor polish. Or translators for benefit offices. Or the fees accrued from sacking civil servants. Either way, we doubt it'd fill much of the missing ?3bn from granny's purse.

Research by UK trade body TIGA estimates tax relief could see the games industry's contribution to the UK GDP increase by ?283m, while generating and safeguarding 4,661 jobs.

And let's not forget just one region of Canada, Quebec, invested an estimated ?74 million in games tax relief last year alone.

The UK has had a proud film industry for years and we think it's about time the government supported its equally valuable game developers before the rest of them bugger off to Montreal. The Sun, Metro: you're WRONG.

[jakem1]

The anti-gaming s**t-rags have gone off on one now, trying to spin the budget into a whole anti-games tirade... http://www.computera...ound-the-alarm/

Yes, it does seem strange to complain about a relatively tiny ?50m investment in a particular industry when it's clear that the extra pension taxes will be used to pay for the tax cuts for millionaires. Still it must be hard for the right-wing press to run that story.

Also, if you're link is correct then The Sun has got it wrong (again) because duty on alcohol won't increase after yesterday's budget.