TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, has published a new report, Supporting Start-ups in the UK Games Development
Sector (TIGA, 2011), in advance of the Government’s Autumn Statement on
November 29th 2011. TIGA’s report sets out four proposals for the UK
Coalition Government to adopt in order to encourage the growth of more
high technology, high skilled, export focused start-ups and small
businesses in the video games development sector:
- Introduce
a well-targeted tax break for games production, with a higher level of
tax relief for small studios, in order to reduce the cost of game
development and to enable the UK video games industry to compete on a
level playing field. - Establish a Creative Content Fund to
provide match funding on a pound for pound basis up to a maximum of
£100,000 in order to improve access to finance for small studios. - Extend the scope of the Small Firms R&D Tax Credit to include the costs of IP protection, design costs and premises costs.
- Address skill shortages by providing tax relief for expenditure on workforce development in small studios.