Research and analysis

Video Game Tax Relief Evaluation

Qualitative research exploring the impact of the Video Game Tax Relief on the production of culturally British and European video games.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 20 July 2017

Documents

Video Game Tax Relief Evaluation

Ref: HMRC Research Report 459

PDF, 622 KB, 48 pages

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Details

The Video Game Tax Relief (VGTR) is one of seven creative industry tax reliefs in the UK tax system, offering UK developers tax relief on a proportion of the developments costs of qualifying video games. The overall aim of this research was to gather insight on how VGTR had affected the production of culturally British and European video games.

This included:

• awareness and perceptions (including misperceptions) of VGTR and the cultural test
• approaches to the application process, including both the cultural test application and the tax relief claim
• impact on games produced in terms of content, creative decision-making, and starting and finishing projects
• impact on individual developers in terms of recruitment and skills, business models, access to finance and sustainability, financial processes
• impact on the industry in terms of recruitment and retention, inward investment and other soft impacts

The report contains findings from 51 in-depth interviews with UK developers carried out between August and November 2016.

Published 20 July 2017