Did a global publisher prevent the UK video games tax breaks?
30 June 2010
In a shocking twist to the out come of the Budget last week it has been suggested that a mystery publisher lobbied the government to prevent the tax breaks going ahead.
Last week Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne revealed that the Coalition Government will not be implementing a tax break for video games in the emergency budget. However a story has been posted on the Develop website claiming that an insider has revealed that one of the biggest games publishers spoke to government official to prevent the tax breaks going ahead.
According to the story “this company had apparently viewed game tax relief as a measure that would have given the UK an unfair advantage over other nations.” Develop is treating the matter with care as it doesn’t want to reveal its sources but the implications of this are worrying for the UK games industry as the point of the tax breaks, according to nearly everyone interviewed on this site, was to bring about a level playing field with other countries such as Canada and France.
The journalist who wrote the story for Develop, Rob Crossley said: “[This means] that the debate on tax breaks for video games developers hasn’t been publicly discussed as it should be.”