Implications for UK accountants as Treasury announces tax relief for creative industries

UK accountants for members of the creative industries will have to take heed of recent plans unveiled by the Treasury. To be precise, the plans, detailed in a consultation document, will see various UK creative industries, including those for television shows, animation and video games, enjoying new tax reliefs. The plans are intended to counter the adverse effect on the economy of UK television productions like Robin Hood and The Tudors often being shot abroad due to the lower cost involved.
These new reliefs are intended to resemble the tax relief which has benefitted the UK film industry since 2007; it lent £200 million of support to the country’s film industry during 2010-11. Andy Harries, chief executive of Left Bank Pictures, told the Press Association that many talented UK-born creatives are opting to work outside the country and that, had relevant tax reliefs been available, about 75% of the budget for a series of his company’s military agency thriller Strike Back would have remained in the UK.
Rachel Austin, tax director at Deloitte, has warned that companies in the creative sector will have to learn about the value of these proposed new tax reliefs as soon as possible in order to prepare for them. UK accountants with clients in the creative sector will also have to learn about the precise nature of these tax reliefs in order to help them minimise what tax their clients have to pay.