Claiming Video Games Expenditure Credits for Corporation Tax
Source: gov.uk (2025-05-21)

Check if your company qualifies for Video Games Expenditure Credits for Corporation Tax and what you can claim.

Watch a video about how creative industry tax reliefs work.

What are creative industry tax reliefs and how do they work? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5hz64Y8pa8)

Who can claim

Your company must be:
- directly responsible for designing, producing, and testing the game
- actively engaged in planning and decision-making
- directly negotiate, contract and pay for rights, goods and services
Check if your company qualifies as the production company (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/corporation-tax-creative-industry-tax-reliefs) before claiming the relief.

Cultural test

To qualify for creative industry tax reliefs, all video games must be certified as British. The video game must pass a cultural test or qualify through an internationally agreed co-production treaty.

The British Film Institute manages certification and qualification on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The British Film Institute will issue:

an interim certificate for uncompleted work

a final certificate where production has finished

You can find more information about certification and applying on the British Film Institute website (https://www.bfi.org.uk/certification).

Check if the video game qualifies for the expenditure credit

If you’re a company claiming tax relief you can claim Video Games Expenditure Credit (VGEC) on expenditure incurred from 1 January 2024.

Your company can claim the expenditure credit on a video game if:
- it is certified as British by the British Film Institute
- it is intended for supply to the general public
- at least 10% of the ‘core costs’ relate to activities in the UK — what’s spent on designing, producing and testing the game
Your company cannot claim the expenditure credit if your game is produced for advertising, promotional purposes or for the purposes of gambling.

You can check if the production qualifies for the relief (https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-your-production-or-exhibition-qualifies-for-corporation-tax-relief).

What you can claim

Watch a video about calculating creative industries expenditure credit.

How to calculate the amount of Creative Industries Expenditure Credit? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfc4ny46Sv0)

You can claim an expenditure credit at a rate of 34% of your qualifying expenditure. Qualifying expenditure will be the lower of either:
- 80% of total core costs
- the amount of UK core costs
Your company’s total expenditure credits for a period are taxed at the main rate of Corporation Tax.

They are then used to pay off your Corporation Tax liability.

They can also be used to pay off other tax liabilities if you have them, or surrendered to group companies.

If you have credit remaining after this, you will receive a payable credit for that amount.

Work out how:

much creative industries expenditure credit (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/work-out-creative-industry-tax-relief-or-expenditure-credits-for-your-production) you can claim for your production

to redeem the value of the creative industries expenditure credit (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/work-out-how-to-redeem-creative-industry-expenditure-credits) you can claim

When you can claim

You may make, amend or withdraw a claim for creative industry tax reliefs up to 2 years after the end of the period of account the claim relates to.

HMRC may agree to accept late claims in some circumstances.

How to claim

Watch a video about how to claim creative industry tax relief.

How to make a claim for creative industries tax relief (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9nTsziMR7o)

Claim the expenditure credits on your Company Tax Return (https://www.gov.uk/company-tax-returns).

You will need to work out the amount of expenditure credit:
- due to your company
- used to pay off your tax liabilities
- surrendered to group companies
- due as a payable credit
You must submit an additional information form (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/support-your-claim-for-creative-industry-tax-reliefs) as evidence for your claim for creative industry tax reliefs.

For each production you must provide:
- a British cultural certificate from the British Film Institute — if you send an interim certificate, you must send the final certificate after the video game is complete and the certificate must be in date when you submit it
- statements of the amount of core costs, split between UK and non-UK costs
- a breakdown of costs by category
- details of connected party transactions
Get more information

You can find more information, including examples of how the expenditure credit is calculated, in the creative industries expenditure credit manual (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/creative-industries-expenditure-credit-manual).