Vive le Video Games as Europe Lifts Tax Break Block
But as the dreaded 'cultural test' comes into play, how can it work?
Things now look a little brighter, a little more positive for UK video games as European Union policy makers renew the 'Cultural Test' to enable game makers to apply for tax breaks.
Develop reports that, "France’s 20 per cent tax credit policy expired in January and left EU members without a clear and tested route to the state aid. While games tax breaks themselves have been banned across the EU, the ‘cultural test’ that studios used to apply for them was no longer applicable.
"That in turn meant EU states would need approval on games tax breaks through other method; one which would be untested, uncertain and likely subject to a protracted approval process."
But now the European Commission has now given the cultural test the all clear for another five-year period. It will expire again in 2018. What his means is that UK game makers - and their competitors in the rest of the EU, can prove that their products show some form of positive and nationally cultural impact in order to attract a tax break.
How exactly this can be applied to a game whose story is written in the UK but is about the life of a criminal in the USA; or the game-play constructed in the UK but is about jumping from block to block in Japan, well, that's yet to be confirmed.
More at Develop
Develop reports that, "France’s 20 per cent tax credit policy expired in January and left EU members without a clear and tested route to the state aid. While games tax breaks themselves have been banned across the EU, the ‘cultural test’ that studios used to apply for them was no longer applicable.
"That in turn meant EU states would need approval on games tax breaks through other method; one which would be untested, uncertain and likely subject to a protracted approval process."
But now the European Commission has now given the cultural test the all clear for another five-year period. It will expire again in 2018. What his means is that UK game makers - and their competitors in the rest of the EU, can prove that their products show some form of positive and nationally cultural impact in order to attract a tax break.
How exactly this can be applied to a game whose story is written in the UK but is about the life of a criminal in the USA; or the game-play constructed in the UK but is about jumping from block to block in Japan, well, that's yet to be confirmed.
More at Develop
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