TIGA Head on UK Tax Breaks: “To say it’s ‘flogging a dead horse’ is bonkers”

TIGA CEO Dr. Richard Wilson has said that it’s “bonkers” to suggest that campaigning for tax relief is “flogging a dead horse”, a statement which EA’s Keith Ramsdale said earlier in the week.

Speaking to Nukezilla, the UK’s videogame trade group boss said that by continuing to campaign for tax relief (which the coalition government scrapped last year) TIGA was keeping “tax breaks alive politically” and said that Ramsdale is “is making a mistaken point” when suggesting that the industry should focus on alternatives to tax relief.

Wilson, who has been campaigning for tax relief extensively since starting the role in 2008, said that the “UK is not competing on a level playing field” and that he “completely disagrees with Keith’s point.

“It’s a great shame that he’s made these remarks because it really damages any unity within the games industry,” he said.

Earlier in the week, EA’s Ramsdale said that “if we just keep going in every time we speak about R&D tax credits, [the government is] just going to stop engaging with us” and said “EA has a much less aggressive view than our big competitor [Activision] there, who doesn’t speak on behalf of all of us.”

However, Wilson called for a more uniform approach from the industry, saying that TIGA have “made a public campaign and we’ve continued and will continue to argue for it and it helps that campaign if EA can be consistent and support tax breaks.”

He said that sending out mixed-messages to the government “wasn’t helpful.”

Wilson maintained that constant pressure was needed to ensure that tax relief would become a reality in the UK, something he says it nearly was last year:

“TIGA, with very limited resources launched an almost single-handed campaign [with which] we got tax breaks in the March budget. We had all four political parties before the general election all publically supporing tax breaks against production, so we changed the political weather.”

Wilson said it was a set-back losing government support after the June General Election, but said “we haven’t gone away and we’re going to carry on campaigning for it.”

He noted that the tax relief was still an official part of both the Scottish National Party and Labour Party policy and that some Conservative MPs continued to support the measure. He said that politicians are “continually changing their minds” and that if you make a strong case in front of them “you’ve got every chance of succeeding.”

Wilson also mentioned foreign companies hiring away British talent – the so-called brain drain – something he said was a major threat to the UK’s industry.

He listed Canada, 20 states in America, and France as countries that have incentives that will help attract talent and organisations. He said that the workforce in the UK was highly skilled, so much so that “Canadians come and poach our staff!” What was missing, Wilson said, was the tax environment.

He noted other companies who have shown disinterest in the UK due to a lack of tax relief, specifically citing Bobby Kotick and THQ, who have both said that the lack of tax incentives in the UK is holding the country back.

“I really think it’s important that the whole industry gets behind this measure,” Wilson said, “and I believe we can get it, and I do believe TIGA can get games tax breaks for the whole games industry, but clearly it will help if organisations like EA will back us too.”

You can read the full interview here.