The Gamers Arms

Well not strictly evasion as such, but still Rockstar apparently hasn't paid Corporation Tax in the last 10 Years...

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ ... think-tank

Full report is up on the TaxWatchUK site if anyone's interested...

https://www.taxwatchuk.org/reports/gami ... ax-system/

Is this the same thing as Amazon. Very clever tax accountants can make it seem like no tax is due. I can never remember the difference between evasion and avoidance. One is illegal and one is clever but unfair?

Just shake it all up and do what the French do but even more so. The French Govt imposed a 3% levy on all French revenue from companies who make more than $750M global revenue. That is revenue, not profit.

Recently I am believe the UK govt should impose a 0.5% revenue tax on small firms below £100K, 1% on firms below £5M and 1.5% on firms above £5M. In that way every company pays tax. Companies would then factor in this tax into the COS - so revenue would be recorded at 99.5% (etc) and automatically accrued at 0.5% so as to give clarity on cost and planning. Similar to VAT.

There you go - tax avoidance is nipped in the bud and the treasury would most likely get more money than the 19% on profits that not get made.

Rusty wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 30, 2019 6:14 am

Is this the same thing as Amazon. Very clever tax accountants can make it seem like no tax is due. I can never remember the difference between evasion and avoidance. One is illegal and one is clever but unfair?

Avoidance is legal but considered to be not within the spirit of the law and so usually once various schemes are identified the Government legislates to change the rules to stamp out those particular methods. Evasion is full on disregard for the laws and is illegal.

Accountants are always ahead of the game though because they help consult on how to write the tax laws, and combined with the overall complexity of tax law, HMRC are forced into a very much reactive role to combat it.

Blizzard gets the TaxWatch treatment...

https://www.taxwatchuk.org/reports/world_of_taxcraft/

Now with some sweet tax haven action.

More hot tax info for you all, this time regarding video games tax relief that's been dished out since it came to be 5 years ago...

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/ ... five-years

A total of £234 million been paid out to 1,110 claims across 1,075 since 2014. According to HMRC's report, this accounts for £2.6 billion of UK expenditure, and £3.7 billion expenditure in total.

The number of claims has been increasing as the years have passed. 345 of the total claims were made in 2018-19, representing 535 games (claims can be made to cover several games).

The past year's claims have paid out £103 million to 170 UK games firms, since multiple claims can also be made for the same game project.

Nothing wrong with most of that, the idea was to allow companies to claim tax relief like they are able to do in other countries so as to make the country more attractive. It just looks bad when the companies in question don't pay tax.

I didn't mean to imply there was anything wrong with it. I just thought I'd post it in here as a kind of relevant aside to all the other shenanigans.

How much of that £324m went to Rockstar though? I'm not sure it's really within the spirit of the relief if huge companies are making use of it.

Rockstar claimed £42 million in Video Game Tax Relief between 2015 and 2017 according to Tax Watch.

They are claiming tax relief offered by the government perfectly legitimately though, by having the development done in the UK. That's jobs for UK developers, I don't see what there is to cry foul about.

Edit: Not you MM, the articles

I imagine that the income tax and PAYE receipts for the employees of these companies make up a significant return on the relief paid out, let alone the other revenue that the companies will be paying in other forms.