Govt to Games Industry: Tax Breaks - Ball's in Your Court
Good news for the industry at last?
A ball in someone's court. Today... you know why.
The UK government in the guise of Minister for Creative Industries, Sion Simon MP, has written to Mike Rawlinson (the Director General of ELSPA) and Richard Wilson (CEO of Tiga) with some potentially earth shattering news for the video games industry; tax breaks could actually be on the cards at long last.
The letter (a full PDF of which is available here) states in part:
"I am writing to you following the publication of the Digital Britain Report, specifically about the Government's commitment to work with the games industry to gather evidence for a culturally based video games tax relief...
"Our commitment to work with you, and others in the games industry, to gather evidence that may support a case for the introduction of culturally based tax breaks for computer games, was influenced by these previous discussions (with the industry)."
It continues by placing the aegis for more information to support such tax breaks firmly with the industry itself, stating: "...what we now require from industry in the way of evidence are specific examples of how a UK culturally based incentive may work in practice, a rationale for supporting culturally British video games and an analysis of how the introduction of such a measure would affect the UK video games market.
"How far we can now take this proposal is dependent on the evidence the industry is able to produce to clearly demonstrate how and if this potential measure may work for the UK games sector. Although Government would like to move quickly to ascertain if a case for support can be made, the speed with which we can make progress is therefore reliant upon the quality and timeliness of evidence the industry can provide."
To show quite how fast the industry can move, ELSPA's Rawlinson has indeed responded in a letter that includes the following:
"...the Government’s promise to look at the evidence for tax breaks provides us with a rare opportunity to show the true value of software-led cultural tax breaks and their positive impact on the industry and economy.
"ELSPA will be looking to developers and publishers, large and small, to help us to gather the information required to create the most convincing argument possible in the hope of once again turning a ‘consultation’ into government commitment.”
We'd also suggest that readers who don't wish to see a sanitised video game environment to respond with their ideas. We'll happily present these to ELSPA and Tiga so that they can be included in any evidence the government (of whatever hue) requires to support the industry.
As for the 'culturally British video games' - we stating that this means 'produced with predominantly British talent with definite revenue additions to the GNP'. After all, it's going to be pretty bloody difficult to set a space opera on Venus and call it "culturally British".
The letter (a full PDF of which is available here) states in part:
"I am writing to you following the publication of the Digital Britain Report, specifically about the Government's commitment to work with the games industry to gather evidence for a culturally based video games tax relief...
"Our commitment to work with you, and others in the games industry, to gather evidence that may support a case for the introduction of culturally based tax breaks for computer games, was influenced by these previous discussions (with the industry)."
It continues by placing the aegis for more information to support such tax breaks firmly with the industry itself, stating: "...what we now require from industry in the way of evidence are specific examples of how a UK culturally based incentive may work in practice, a rationale for supporting culturally British video games and an analysis of how the introduction of such a measure would affect the UK video games market.
"How far we can now take this proposal is dependent on the evidence the industry is able to produce to clearly demonstrate how and if this potential measure may work for the UK games sector. Although Government would like to move quickly to ascertain if a case for support can be made, the speed with which we can make progress is therefore reliant upon the quality and timeliness of evidence the industry can provide."
To show quite how fast the industry can move, ELSPA's Rawlinson has indeed responded in a letter that includes the following:
"...the Government’s promise to look at the evidence for tax breaks provides us with a rare opportunity to show the true value of software-led cultural tax breaks and their positive impact on the industry and economy.
"ELSPA will be looking to developers and publishers, large and small, to help us to gather the information required to create the most convincing argument possible in the hope of once again turning a ‘consultation’ into government commitment.”
We'd also suggest that readers who don't wish to see a sanitised video game environment to respond with their ideas. We'll happily present these to ELSPA and Tiga so that they can be included in any evidence the government (of whatever hue) requires to support the industry.
As for the 'culturally British video games' - we stating that this means 'produced with predominantly British talent with definite revenue additions to the GNP'. After all, it's going to be pretty bloody difficult to set a space opera on Venus and call it "culturally British".
Companies:
ELSPA
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Comments
Joji 30 Jun 2009 17:29
1/2
I hate MPs and their buzz words. Just say stuff in simpler terms.
'Culturally British'? WFT?? Why not just have a made in Britain stamp and be done with it?
'Culturally British'? WFT?? Why not just have a made in Britain stamp and be done with it?
YenRug 1 Jul 2009 14:15
2/2
@Joji
Because, under EU regulations, you cannot give an industry an anti-competitive tax break unless it satisfies certain conditions. The French have similar tax breaks for software which promotes French culture, we're just going down the same route because they had to fight to get theirs and we can use the same justification. The problem is Canadian tax breaks which are aimed at the industry as a whole, with the sole intent of bringing developers to their country at the expense of others.
Because, under EU regulations, you cannot give an industry an anti-competitive tax break unless it satisfies certain conditions. The French have similar tax breaks for software which promotes French culture, we're just going down the same route because they had to fight to get theirs and we can use the same justification. The problem is Canadian tax breaks which are aimed at the industry as a whole, with the sole intent of bringing developers to their country at the expense of others.