After InfinityGate comes the less snappy SabotagedTaxBreaksGate. Develop are running a story where they claim a ‘global publisher’ actively campaigned against the government giving the UK games industry tax breaks, something they talked about before the general election. The Develop story states:
One of the biggest game companies in the world exerted pressure on the UK government and British trade associations to abandon plans for UK tax breaks.
A few days ago the plans for tax breaks were scrapped as part of the budget, with the Chancellor explaining they were ‘unfairly targetted’. Develop state:
It appears as though one publisher at least is celebrating the success of its own lobbying. This company had apparently viewed game tax relief as a measure that would have given the UK an unfair advantage over other nations.
If these claims are true then there is a serious issue address, a publisher with little or no UK presence is allegedly directly influencing how our government is run. This is not just a little tit for tat scandal within the games industry, Develop are claiming a publisher is putting UK games developers at a disadvantage and influencing government policy.
Please refrain from directly accusing anyone within the comments section.
Source: Develop
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Mikiyaru
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PoorPaddy89
More rational than stereotypical.
colmshan1990
I think we all did. Doesn’t mean they did though.
PoorPaddy89
True.
bunimomike
Ignoring the common sense behind our current economic situation and that the games industry might not have got it anyway I’d like to know who lobbied against it. If we can categorically find out who it was I will give their games a miss which is really saying something for me as I’ve not done anything like that before. Teflon is spot on! We were only trying to get tax breaks to get us playing on an even field once more.
JesseDeya
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bunimomike
I don’t mind when a games company/publisher is trying to make money and keep respective shareholders happy but actively lobbying against the tax break. Pretty bloody disgraceful if you ask me.
Mick939
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Paranoimia
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commuterzombie
Hmm, looks like loads have people have ignored the no speculation request in the article! You might want to whack a big impossible to miss disclaimer in the article saying that the views expressed in the comments are in no way representative of the views of TSA etc. just in case!