Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, claims that the much lobbied for tax relief for the UK games industry is "constantly under review." His comments were in response to a question from the Conservative MP for Folkestone & Hythe, Damian Collins.
UK games industry trade group Tiga welcomed Hunt's comments. Tiga CEO Richard Wilson said the following:
"Whilst, we were delighted that the government made changes to the R&D tax credits which we campaigned for in last week's Budget, the introduction of TIGA's Games Tax Relief is the one measure which would really power the UK video games sector forward," he said.
"The UK games industry is competing on a very uneven playing field. Many of our overseas competitors benefit from tax breaks for games production. The UK does not. The Canadian games industry grew by 33 percent in terms of headcount between 2008 and 2010. The UK games industry declined by 9 percent."
"TIGA will continue to strengthen the case for Games Tax Relief and clearly focus this tax relief," Wilson added. "We will also continue to campaign for this measure - one that has cross party support in the House of Commons and which is supported by the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Labour Party."
Of course saying and doing are two different things. Government officials have been giving lip service to tax breaks for a very long time while developers have been jumping ship to Canada where tax breaks for the industry are widespread and common.
Source: C&VG
