Media tax relief worth £565m

The media and entertainment industry is expected to receive tax breaks worth £565m this year. That is an increase of 9% from £530m last year according to accountancy firm Moore Stephens.

Video games developers are expected to benefit from one of the biggest increases in the value of relevant tax relief of any segment of the industry – up 14% to £40m in 2016-17 from £35m in 2015-16.

But film tax relief is worth by far the most and is forecast to cost the exchequer £370m in 2016-17 up from £335m the previous year.

Tax breaks for high-end TV productions – dramas documentaries or comedies – are expected to be worth £105m with theatre tax relief worth an estimated £40m and relief on animated programmes £10m.

Philip Clark an entertainment and media partner at Moore Stephens said: ‘As businesses and talent are increasingly internationally...