Drop in creative sector tax reliefs in 2021-22

In the year ending March 2022 £1.05bn was paid out across all of the creative industries tax reliefs according to HMRC statistics. This is a decrease from the £1.32bn paid in the year ending March 2021. HMRC ascribes the fall mainly to a sharp drop in the amount of film tax relief claimed.

High-end television (HETV) tax relief accounted for 38% of the total amount with film tax relief accounting for 35%. This is the first time that the amount of HETV tax relief has exceeded film tax relief. For HETV tax relief there were 370 claims representing 355 programmes resulting in relief of £397m – a 5% rise over 2020-21. A total of £362m of film tax relief was paid in response to 720 claims representing 715 films. This however was a 41% fall in the amount of...