EU Backs Gaming Tax Incentives In France News
Jon Wilcox
12/12/2007
Decision now paves the way for other EU countries (including the UK) to follow suit in the coming months...
The European Union has today backed French plans to apply movie tax breaks to the country's videogames industry, bringing 'La Republic' in line with the likes of Canada, which has seen an explosion of videogaming activity since the introduction of tax breaks in Quebec.
Development studios in France will now be able to apply for a cash rebate of up to 20% depending on circumstances, with current estimates putting 50% of studios eligible.
The move has been widely backed by the UK-based independent developer organisation TIGA, which sees the EU ruling as providing a more level playing field for European studios.
TIGA now hopes that the British Government follows suit in the near future, as Fred Hasson, CEO of Tiga and Chairman of EGDF (European Games Developers Forum) explained: 'Tiga notes that the UK government did not rule out applying the same support systems to the UK at the recent public debates with Ministers, and invites UK based publishers to support us in levelling the playing field for UK development groups in the face of loosing work and staff to Canada and other territories due to state aids'.