New video games tax relief data published today by HMRC show that to date 1,640 video games have claimed VGTR since the relief was introduced, totalling £4.4bn of UK game development expenditure of an overall expenditure of £6.4bn.
2020-2021 saw new annual records set both for the number of games supported by VGTR and the value of the relief paid out, with 640 titles receiving a total of £180m across 350 claims. For 2019-2020, the corresponding figures were £121m of relief for 610 titles, a 48% increase in tax relief paid out.
The number of claims made within each value band has remained broadly consistent across the past several years, but the total relief paid to claims over £500k increased markedly in 2020-2021. The total value of the relief paid out to claims over £500k was 63% higher this year than in 2019-2020 against an increase in the number of claims of only 22%. In 2020-2021, 55 claims of more than £500k equated to 16% of all claims made but the £156m total paid out represented 87% of the total value of this year's payments. HMRC note that this is due to the timing of a small number of high-value claims so these figures may not directly represent video game production activity in 2020-2021, though they do suggest a healthy and valuable sector that has grown despite the broader challenges of the last 18 months.
There were 165 claims of values below £50k representing 47% of all 2020-2021 claims and a further 37% of claims were for amounts between £50k and £500k, demonstrating the importance of the relief to games studios of all sizes in the UK.
To date, the 160 games completed in 2020-2021 represent £570m of UK expenditure, from a total expenditure of £715m. These numbers are provisional and are likely rise, as a further 100 games (representing £1.3bn of UK expenditure) are recorded as incomplete but may have completed development in 2020-2021.
Since the relief was introduced in 2014, a total of £624m has been paid out in relation to 1,815 claims for 2,705 video games.
Across all of these figures, we may see further increases for 2020-2021 as games companies can make claims up to 2 years after the completion of a project. Further information about VGTR as well as figures for previous years can be found at Ukiepedia.