TIGA Head: No Games Tax Relief a “Failure of Imagination”

Hope turned to despair for the UK videogame industry as accounts circulate today that the long-awaited pre-budget report will not offer any kind of tax breaks or incentives for those creating interactive entertainment.

The Guardian reported ahead of Chancellor Alistair Darling’s (pictured) speech that the government was expected to reject the idea of tax breaks, which several other sources following the pre-budget report live are verifying now.

Trade group TIGA, long a champion of such tax breaks expressed dismay over the unfolding events, calling the lack of Games Tax Relief a “serious mistake and a failure of imagination.”

As part of a long statement, TIGA CEO Richard Wilson stated:

The Government has shown itself willing to support the UK Film Industry through tax relief, the oil industry with tax breaks, declining manufacturing businesses with loans and grants, and has spent billions bailing out the banking industry.

 

The UK video games industry has the potential to be world beating. Yet we cannot will the end without providing the means: the Government must invest in the industry if it wants it to remain world leading.

He continued:

We have consistently warned the Government that without the introduction of a Games Tax Relief the video games development sector will likely decline by 5% each year over each of the next five years. Conversely, if a Games Tax Relief is introduced, then the industry will eventually enjoy annual growth of 4%.

Wilson vowed that TIGA would “redouble” its efforts to convince policymakers of “the need to invest in our sector.”

Britain boasted the third-largest game development community in the world for the better part of three decades, trailing only the U.S. and Japan. By some estimates the UK now ranks fourth or fifth, behind Canada and South Korea, as tax incentives continue to lure developers to more favorable pastures.