UK devs doubling down on tax relief as payouts rise by 60 percent

More UK developers than ever are being helped out by video games tax relief, which lets UK studios potentially claim back up to 25 percent of production costs. 

The latest government figures showing that £73M was paid out over the past year. As noted by UK trade body UKIE, it's a number that represents a 60 percent increase in payments from the previous year. 

The number of claims being made are also on the up. From April 2016 to March 2017 over 280 successful claims were filed by developers, compared to just 130 the year before. 

To date, around £119 million in tax relief has paid out since the initiative was introduced in April 2014, with 295 video game productions claiming relief in that time. 

"The landscape of the UK games sector would be completely different without the evident contribution of the Video Games Tax Relief," said UKIE CEO, Dr. Jo Twist. 

"The VGTR directly creates jobs, fuels technical and creative innovation, and allows the UK to be a real global player in the games and interactive entertainment sector.

"Government support, particularly through the tax relief, is a huge contributor to what makes the UK games industry globally competitive, and it was encouraging to see support lent to building on the creative tax reliefs in their election manifesto."