Tax relief for British creatives: an improving situation

Here are a couple of notes on UK IP-related tax developments.

Not quite -- but the sentiment is welcomed ...

First, according to the British government, the European Commission has now approved a UK proposal for video games tax relief, this being via a 25% repayable tax credit on qualifying production costs. The draft provisions introducing this relief were published in December 2012, ending up as law with the passage of the Finance Act 2013 (Section 36 and Schedule 17, embedding them in Part 15B of the Corporation Tax Act 2009. The new provisions came into force this Tuesday, 1 April, according to a GOV.UK news item, here.

Secondly, a consultation paper has now been published by Her Majesty's Treasury, which is seeking some feedback regarding the design of a new corporation tax relief for theatre productions (plays, musicals, dance, ballet and opera).The basic idea is that the new relief will work much the same way as existing film tax relief, providing an additional corporation tax deduction for qualifying expenditure  such as script fees, casting and rehearsing costs and a payable tax credit of 25% for qualifying touring productions, and 20% for other qualifying productions. If you want to make any comments, you have until 8 May to do so. Further details are available here.