Gareth Hill
Partner
UK creative industries tax reliefs
The creative industries are a vital component of the UK economy, and the Government offers financial support to foster growth and encourage production development in the UK.
The key element of this support is through creative sector tax reliefs and credits, which offer corporation tax reductions and refundable credits based on a percentage of eligible expenditure.
Reliefs available up to 31 March 2027 include:
- Film Tax Relief (FTR)
- Animation Tax Relief (ATR)
- High-end Television Tax Relief (HTR)
- Children’s Television Tax Relief (CTR)
- Video Games Tax Relief (VGTR)
From 1 January 2024, the Government introduced new expenditure credits which will eventually replace the tax reliefs above. The good news is that these new reliefs offer a higher percentage rate of credit based on eligible expenditure, and cover a wider range of activities as follows:
- Audio Visual Expenditure Credit (AVEC): This covers film, animation, high-end and children’s television productions, replacing FTR, ATR, HTR, and CTR.
- Video Game Expenditure Credit (VGEC): This covers video games and replaces VGTR.
The other longstanding reliefs that remain available are:
- Theatre Tax Relief (TTR)
- Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR)
- Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief (MGETR)
We’re a team of creative industry tax specialists with years of experience helping businesses get the most out of the options available, managing your compliance and applying for new reliefs.
Whether you are looking for funding, entering production or at the later stages of your project, we can help you get the benefits of these reliefs.
Intellectual Property Rights
The protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) is a key building block for success in the creative industries and for any business growing through innovation and technology. As well as traditional protection methods such as patents, trademarks, copyrights and design rights, you should consider using corporate structures to protect your IP. These might include:
- Using limited liability companies to protect IPR
- Separation of IPR from trading companies
- Setting up new group companies to protect IPR (within or outside current group structures)
- Splitting an existing group to separate trading group companies from IPR protection companies.
How we can assist you
Our team has a wealth of experience in advising businesses on all the tax aspects of claiming creative sector tax reliefs and managing IPR. Involving our experts at an early stage means we can identify the best strategy for your business and offer a tailored approach to optimise your return on investment.
We can guide you through every step of the tax relief or credit claim process, from determining if your production, game, or exhibition qualifies for the relevant tax reliefs or expenditure credits, to following through with obtaining BFI cultural accreditation and identifying qualifying expenditure.
