In addition to news and information services, Prolific North is committed to providing a range of management resources for our readers.
Last year we partnered with three leading professional firms – Lucas Fettes, Tree Accountancy and Turner Parkinson – to offer a quality new advisory service for our readers, Prolific Advice.
Experts from these partners are also publishing practical, case study-led advice on a range of issues that affect Prolific North’s readership.
This week, Nik Hynes, Partner at Tree Accountancy, introduces the first in a series of four case studies relating to new Government legislation for the creative sector.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced a package of creative sector tax reliefs which it is hoped will result in new investment and initiatives relating to some particular areas of the creative industry.
Specifically, the new arrangements will cover:
- Animation
- High end television
- Video games
- Films
It’s great to see that HMRC isn’t the only ‘publicly-funded body’ (along with the BBC!) that has recognised the region’s strengths in Prolific North’s sector – it’s set up a Creative Industries Team which, as of last April, is based in Manchester.
Tasks and responsibilities for the new team will include accepting and subsequently assessing claims for the reliefs (subject to State aid approval) and providing advice on the reliefs to interested companies and their representatives.
Animation tax relief
From 1 April 2013, companies that are directly involved in the production of animation may be able to claim tax relief for qualifying animation expenditure.
The relief will allow companies to claim an additional deduction when calculating their taxable profits.
There is an extra 25% allowance over and above the 100% of the actual qualifying expenditure against any tax that is due, i.e. a £100 expense is now £125.
If the extra relief results in a loss, you can also receive the 25% credit back and surrender the loss which would offer the advantage of an immediate relief on the loss, rather than waiting to carry it forward and offset against future profits.
There are – as always with HMRC – some qualifying criteria, the key one being that the submitting company must be eligible and the production must be certified by the Department of Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) as culturally ‘British’.
In my next articles, I’ll be outlining details relating to high end television and video gaming. If you’d like to discuss any aspects of the above, please contact me at Nik@treeaccountancy.co.uk.
