MPs demand Video Games Tax Relief

The group, including former ministers Stephen Timms and Tom Watson and Chair of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee John Whittingdale, are all members of the All Party Computer and Video Games Industry Group. Their letter, seen by The Daily Telegraph, claims “To maintain its status as a world-class games development location, to continue to maximise tax revenues and to attract investment into the UK, the UK Coalition Government needs to implement a relatively modest but significant fiscal intervention, a tax relief for games development.” Mr Whittingdale has previously written a foreword to a study by video games trade association TIGA, calling for tax relief for the sector. If it were modelled on tax relief for the film industry, TIGA claims £95 million of government investment could yield up to a £1billion of investment into games as a whole. The MPs claim “tax relief will provide a powerful boost to the UK video games industry and so support the wider economic recovery”. Price Waterhouse Coopers figures claim the global games industry has grown by “23 per cent through the global financial turmoil and is projected to grow by 8.2 per cent each year to 2015”.