Darling announces UK games trade tax breaks


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March 24th, 2010 @ 13:30

By Patrick Garratt

darling.jpg

The clock just stopped. UK Chancellor Alastair Darling just confirmed that the UK games development industry is to get tax breaks.

Delivering his 2010 budget, Darling said, ?We need to keep British talent in this country? and that the breaks would be ??similar? to those afforded to the UK film industry.

The move will delight those at TIGA, ELSPA and other UK bodies who?ve been lobbying Government on the matter for years.

In July last year, the government ?committed to work with the industry to collect and review the evidence for a tax relief to promote the sustainable production for online or physical sale of culturally British video games? as part of its Digital Britain report.

TIGA has estimated that cultural tax break along the same lines as those given to the film industry will raise over ?400 million for the treasury in five years.

Breaks will undoubtedly makes Britain more attractive to firms looking to set up large development studios. Quebec has constantly drawn the likes of EA and Ubisoft to set up shop with its biggest teams in recent years thanks to cash breaks, a situation TIGA tried to highlight with the WTO in 2008.

Canada?s financial stance on development saw its industry grow by 18 percent in the 18 months leading to the end of 2008 in terms of numbers employed, while the UK headcount fell by the same percentage.

We?re still waiting on specifics as to what?s actually being offered.

http://www.vg247.com/2010/03/24/darling-announces-uk-games-trade-tax-breaks/

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Awesome people have been fighting for this for a long time, its nice to see the government listen, hopefully this will stop studios going bust or being gobbled up by the big publishers.

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Awesome people have been fighting for this for a long time, its nice to see the government listen, hopefully this will stop studios going bust or being gobbled up by the big publishers.

agreed, the market is worth more than hollywood it would be folly to keep pushing the talented studios out of the UK.

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Well hasn't the UK ranking in game dev been dropping? ?While I like the tax breaks for gaming industry, question is how effective will it be for the small studios to use.

The budget was a load of tosh anyway, ?it was to big up labor for the election, the real budget will come after the election.

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