Ministers reveal new plans to boost animated film productions in UK

The creative industry has grown at more than 1.5 times the rate of the wider economy over the past decade, making it an important sector for the Chancellor’s plan to grow the economy.

• Increased tax relief to boost Britain’s animated film production

• Measure is “about backing business to innovate and grow the UK economy”

• Draft legislation also published to clarify design details underpinning a simplified Research and Development Scheme

The new tax changes announced today are expected to be worth £5 million each year to business and come alongside the Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit which was uplifted at budget from 33.33% to 39%. This also follows the Creative Industries Sector Vision published last month which set an ambition to grow the creative industries by an extra £50 billion by 2030.

These changes are a key part of the government’s plan to get the economy growing and make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business.

This measure is part of 23 tax announcements published today as part of the government’s ‘Legislation Day’, where draft legislation for an upcoming Finance Bill is published, as well as technical tax documents and consultations mostly from measures announced at the Spring Budget.

Also published today is the proposed design for a simplified R&D scheme, which would be born out of a merger from two previous schemes, as well as draft legislation also published to cement a further new £500 million per year scheme to support 20,000 R&D intensive SMEs.

A final decision will be made in the Autumn on whether to merge the Research and Development Expenditure Credit and Small Medium Enterprise relief schemes to form a new scheme. A merged scheme would simplify the system, by creating a single set of qualifying rules, and giving clarity on how much could be claimed before claims are made.

Source: HM Treasury