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

Check if your company qualifies for Video Games Tax Relief 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 responsible for designing, producing and testing the video game
- be actively engaged in planning and decision-making
- directly negotiate, contract and pay for rights, goods and services
- spend at least 25% of its ‘core costs’ on goods or services provided from within the UK or the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein known as the European Economic Area (EEA)
Core costs are what’s spent on designing, producing and testing the game.

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 pass a cultural test and be certified as British.

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 tax relief

Your company can claim the relief if the video game:
- is certified as British by the British Film Institute
- is intended for supply to the general public
- started production on or before 31 March 2025
Your company cannot claim the relief if your game is produced for:
- advertising or promotional purposes
- the purposes of gambling
You can check if the programme 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

You can claim an additional deduction to reduce your profits or to increase a loss. This will reduce the amount of any Corporation Tax you will need to pay.

The additional deduction will be the lower of either:
- 80% of total core costs
- the amount of core costs on goods or services that are provided from the UK and EEA
If you make a loss, some or all of this loss can be surrendered for a payable tax credit at a rate of 25%.

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

When you can claim

You may make, amend or withdraw a claim for Video Games Tax Relief up to one year after the company’s filing date.

For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024, you may make, amend or withdraw a claim for Video Games Tax Relief 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 tax relief on your Company Tax Return (https://www.gov.uk/company-tax-returns).

You will need to calculate the amount of:
- additional deduction due to your company
- any payable credit due
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 in the final certificate when the game is complete and the certificate must be in date when you submit it
statements of the amount of core costs, split between:
- UK or EEA
- non-UK or non-EEA
- a breakdown of costs by category
Closure of Video Games Tax Relief from 1 April 2027

You cannot claim Video Games Tax Relief for any productions that start the production phase after 31 March 2025.

The relief will close for all productions from 1 April 2027.

You may be able to claim a Video Games Expenditure Credit (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claiming-video-games-expenditure-credits-for-corporation-tax) for any productions that you cannot claim Video Games Tax Relief for.

Get more information

You can find more information, including examples of how the relief is calculated, in the Video Games Development Company Manual (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/video-games-development-company-manual).