Game Developers Lament Lack of Support in U.K. Budget Plan

Your missing my point (I'm from England so well aware of what constitues the UK thanks)

Had this budget catered for tax breaks to UK developers, all UK developers would have benefitted (obviously), if Scotland alone introduces tax breaks it will likely cause a shift of UK developers to be based in Scotland instead, afterall it's a hell of a lot easier to move headquarters North a few miles than shift the lot of to Canada.

Either Scotland or the UK as a whole introducing tax breaks is clearly a better option than none but it would be better for the UK economical markets if it wasn't centred on a single region.

Um... The games industry will still be paying taxes. They will just qualify for more rebates if they were offered. Their employees will still be paying income taxes and other imcome related taxes. That is where the benifit is really at.

By offering cheaper development costs in the form of tax breaks for the company, they will be less likely to move out of the country. By staying in the country, people will not have to leave the country to work. By staying in the country to work, they will be paying that country's taxes and thus bring in income to the country.

What the games industry is saying is that their costs are rising while other developers in nations with tax breaks have costs that are dropping due to those tax breaks. It gets very tempting for industries to move to areas that offer cheaper costs.

So why not compete with those nations and work to keep industry in your own country? But I forget this is the UK. The country that would rather complain that other nations offer better incentives to industries rather than offer those incentives themselves.

E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma