It’s back to wanting tax breaks again from the UK government as TIGA publish an 85-page report on the issue. It will help ‘rebalance the UK economy’.
Cultural tax breaks could secure as many as 3366 development jobs in the UK and £431 million in investment. Since 2008 the UK games staff has fallen 9 percent.
”If the coalition government is serious about its intention of rebalancing the economy then it should invest in the UK videogames industry by introducing a tax break for games production,” declared TIGA CEO Richard Wilson.
”Games tax relief would create jobs, boost investment and generate much needed tax revenue for the government. The coalition government recognises the effectiveness of tax breaks because it already supports the UK film industry with a tax credit.”
”It should adopt the same successful policy for the video games industry to enable our sector to make a powerful contribution to UK economic growth.”
EA’s Keith Ramsdale is sceptical any such tax relief will be coming to the videogames industry in the UK given the mass cuts across the board.
”We’re not going to suddenly be handed a great big tax relief bill when the government’s facing the economic issues it is - I think that cuts to the chase on this. The conversations we’ve had with government are pretty clear on this,” noted Ramsdale.
TIGA estimate that 1328 new jobs over 5 years would be created from tax relief, and increasing studio investment by £138 million. They also claim that 2427 ”indirect jobs” would result as well contributing £307 million to the UK GDP.
2038 direct jobs and 3726 indirect jobs would be kept safe from further cultural relief, with £267 million in tax revenue guarded as well as £649 million in GDP.
