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When you watch a film are you somebody that leaves as soon as the credits start to roll, or do you wait until the seemingly endless list of people involved finally comes to an end? I’m in the latter camp. I find it intriguing to see all the backstage roles – I have never been sure what a ‘best boy’ actually does.
Don’t worry – we have not been taken over by a film magazine. This is still Taxation and I will get to tax eventually. Over the holiday I went to see One Life, the new film about Sir Nicholas Winton, who arranged for the rescue of hundreds of children from Czechoslovakia at the beginning of the war. It was very moving, and I thoroughly recommend it. But let me at last come to tax. One of the people listed in the rolling credits was a ‘tax reclaim manager’. (The role was only on the screen for a few seconds, and I may not have got it exactly right.) Her presence in the credits was a tangible reminder of the importance of the tax credit scheme to the development of the UK film industry. Indeed Warner Brothers – the film’s distributor – made specific reference to One Life in its evidence to the recent government enquiry into film tax reliefs committees (tinyurl.com/y3sexj7r).
It has taken some time to get tax relief on film production into the right place. We all know of the problems arising with film partnerships. But this relief seems to be working well and is attracting huge amounts of economic activity in the UK which might otherwise have gone elsewhere. So I am glad I stayed for the credits: had I not, I might have had to fill this column with a day-by-day account of my Christmas holiday.
Happy new year!
If you do one thing…
See the updated HMRC guidance on foreign entity classification in International Manual at INTM180030 (tinyurl.com/hmrcintm180030).
