Following an earlier consultation (concluded last month) that gathered input into how the production tax relief process would work for UK games companies, the State Aid Consultation published today (and found here) asks for industry input into a Cultural Test that games will be required to pass before becoming eligible for UK production tax relief.

The Cultural Test will be points based and will ask questions such as whether the game contains British and European cultural elements and whether it has British or European talent in lead roles of the production and for technical innovation.

Under European law, countries cannot introduce tax incentives that give advantages to them over other member states. But the European Commission accepts that countries should be free to support and protect their own particular culture and so does allow tax incentives that add to the cultural output of a country. This is how existing film and games tax credits are currently allowed and this is why the UK system similarly needs to prove that games are cultural products.

We are holding seminars at our offices so businesses can find out more about the proposals and have a chance to give their feedback.

Seminar dates are on the afternoons of 16 October and 23 of October.