The European Commission has approved games industry tax breaks after investigating a previously submitted proposal.
It is hoped that this will provide incentive to developers to produce games that meet certain cultural criteria, meaning that support will only be granted to projects of cultural value. It is estimated that 25 percent of games produced in the UK will be eligible.
“The European Commission has concluded that UK plans to grant certain tax relief to producers of video games are in line with EU state aid rules”, they shared in a press release.
“The Commission has found in particular that the measure provides incentives to developers to produce games meeting certain cultural criteria, in line with EU objectives”.
This isn’t the first time that the tax cuts have been proposed, with the Commission opening an investigation in April last year. This had been in response to having doubts that such aid was necessary, with games still being produced without such support.
Following the analysis of comments sent through by UK and other parties that were interested, Commission vice president in charge of competition policy, Joaquín Almunia, concluded: “Our initial doubts have been dispelled. The proposed aid for video games is indeed focusing on a small number of distinctive, culturally British games which have increasing difficulties to find private financing”.
European Commission approves UK Games Tax Relief
