TIGA Responds to 2014 Autumn Statement

By December 3, 2014 Press Releases

TIGA, the network for videogame developers and digital publishers, has responded to today’s Autumn Statement, welcoming improvements to R&D Tax Credits but calling for the Government to explore further measures to boost exports, investment and funding for small businesses in the March 2015 Budget, including an Export Tax Relief and a Prototype and a Creative Content Fund. 

TIGA commended the Chancellor’s plans to enhance the R&D Tax Credits and his plans to boost bank lending to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), with the Treasury pledging £400m to extend government-backed venture capital funds (called Enterprise Capital Funds) that invest in fast growing SMEs. 

TIGA also welcomed the Government’s plans to provide tax relief for orchestras and for children’s television production.

TIGA commended the Chancellor’s plans to boost bank lending to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), with the Treasury pledging £400m to extend government-backed venture capital funds (called Enterprise Capital Funds) that invest in fast growing SMEs. 

The Chancellor’s guarantee of up to £500m of new bank lending to SMEs, and extension of the Funding for Lending (FLS) scheme for another year will be welcome news to some SMEs, but bank finance is not a significant source of finance for most video games businesses. 

Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO, said: 

“The UK needs to promote a more balanced economic recovery which is less dependent on financial services, consumer expenditure and an expansion of private borrowing to buy houses, and more reliant on investment and exports.

“This is why TIGA has proposed an Export Tax Relief to boost exports, incentives to encourage investment in training, university incubators to strengthen regional growth, improvements to the SEIS as well as the introduction of a Prototype Fund and Creative Content Fund to enable more small development studios to expand, flourish and prosper. 

“TIGA will continue to advance its agenda to strengthen the videogame development and digital publishing sector in the run up to the March Budget and the General Election in 2015.”  

TIGA, in advance of the Autumn Statement, proposed a series of measures to strengthen firms, industries and the UK economy:

  1. A Prototype Fund should be made available to enable start-up studios to access finance and develop playable prototypes.
  2. A Creative Content Fund (CCF) should be established in order to encourage new studio formation, stimulate creativity, new content development and IP generation. The CCF could make loans available to games businesses on a pound for pound, matched funding basis. Both the Prototype Fund and the CCF could be financed via the National Lottery or via Innovate UK.
  3. An Export Tax Relief should be introduced to incentivise more small firms to export, thereby promoting export-led economic growth. The Export Tax Relief should be based on the existing Patent Box scheme and would entail a competitive tax rate (e.g. 15 or 10 per cent) on the profits generated from exports.
  4. Regional/National Games Development Incubators should be established at a university or at a consortium of universities in each of the English regions and in each of the nations within the UK to enable more successful start-ups.
  5. A pilot Training Tax Relief (TTR) should be introduced for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). TTR would operate in a similar way to the existing R&D tax credits and would enable SMEs to offset expenditure on training, Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for staff and education outreach activities against corporation tax.
  6. The amount of money that a company can raise via the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) should be increased from £150,000 to £200,000.

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