The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, has delivered his 2022 Autumn Statement.
The Chancellor announced the Government will be consulting on reforming the audio-visual creative reliefs as they seek to build upon the success of the audio-visual subset of the creative industry tax reliefs, covering film, animation, high-end TV, children’s TV and video games.
During his oral statement to the House of Commons, the Chancellor announced three priorities ‘stability, growth and public services’.
The Statement also:
- Confirmed a fiscal consolidation of £55 billion with around half coming from spending cuts and the rest from tax rises. This is equivalent to 2.5 per cent of GDP.
- Announced two new fiscal rules:
- underlying debt must be falling as a proportion of GDP by the end of a five-year rolling period.
- public sector borrowing over the same period must be below 3 per cent of GDP.
- Announced Research and Development Expenditure Credit (RDEC) rate will increase from 13% to 20%, the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) additional deduction will decrease from 130% to 86%, and the SME credit rate will decrease from 14.5% to 10%
- Appointed an Adviser on Skills Reform, Sir Michael Barber who will advise the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for Education on the implementation of current reforms.
The Autumn Statement can be accessed here. A press release from HM Treasury can be accessed here.
Dr Richard Wilson OBE, TIGA CEO, said:
“TIGA looks forward to responding to the consultation on audio-visual tax reliefs. Video Games Tax Relief (VGTR) is enabling our sector to grow strongly. TIGA played a critical role in the long battle to win VGTR, which effectively reduces the cost and risk of game development and incentivises investment and employment growth in the industry. The UK games industry’s headcount declined by an annual average of 3.1 per cent between 2008 and 2011, before VGTR existed. Since 2014 when VGTR was introduced, the headcount in the industry has grown on average by 9.9 per cent each year.
“The UK Government could enhance VGTR to improve the overall environment for games development in the UK. This would enable our industry to secure a larger share of the market for games production and content and to stay competitive against other jurisdictions with generous tax incentives.”
TIGA
TIGA is the trade association for the UK video games industry. Our vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to develop video games. Our core purpose is to strengthen the games development and digital publishing sector. To this end, we focus on four strategic objectives:
- influencing Government policy via effective political representation;
- raising the profile of our industry to influence public policy;
- enhancing education and skills through our accreditation programme (https://tiga.org/education/tiga-university-accreditation) and TIGA Games Education Awards (https://tiga.org/education-awards); and
- promoting best practice through our membership services, including the TIGA STAR Employer Award (https://tiga.org/star) and the TIGA Games Industry Awards (https://tiga.org/awards).
For more information contact TIGA:
Tel: 0845 468 2330
Email: info@tiga.org
Web: www.tiga.org
Twitter: www.twitter.com/tigamovement
Facebook: www.facebook.com/TIGAMovement
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/tiga