Fiscal and Tax Incentives
Video Games Europe wants to drive sustainable growth in the industry at a crucial time for the continent. Supportive fiscal and tax incentives will ensure Europe remains a desired destination for digital industries, allowing video games companies to compete globally. Many countries outside of Europe attract and develop investment in this sector by offering generous tax incentives that target games and other digital media companies.
So far only two countries in Europe, the UK and France, offer tax incentives for games sector activity. These credit systems, introduced during the past decade, have been accessed by thousands of companies and have enabled strong growth. In the UK, many new games are produced annually and in France game production has doubled. We encourage the development of further local tax incentive systems. Similar systems which benefit the film and television industries have been in place for decades in most European countries. Their spectacular success in developing national audiovisual culture speaks for itself. There is no reason, legal or political, why the games industry should not benefit from such or similar national incentives.
At European level, we welcome the Creative Europe programme and encourage an increase in the budget allocated to the video games sector to fully recognise the most innovative part of the European creative sector and the one with the greatest potential.
Esports – organised, competitive video gaming, usually (but not exclusively) between professional players or teams – is an important and fast growing segment of the video games industry. Esports offers huge opportunities for job creation, economic growth, tourism and the development of digital skills across Europe. National and European authorities should work with the vgames industry to actively promote and encourage esports. Appropriate fiscal and tax incentives could also play a vital role in this regard.
