Independent Scotland could lose video games tax breaks

Scottish games developers could lose the tax breaks they fought so hard for, if the country was to go independent.

On September 18th, Scotland’s population will vote whether to become an independent country or not. If they decided yes, then Scotland would need to set up their own tax system, and will need to decide whether the Games Tax Relief is something they would wish to replicate.

Even if the Scottish Government decides that it would like to keep the tax relief, it would need to seek EU Commission approval, a process that took a year for the UK Government.

The UK games tax relief was confirmed for British games industry was confirmed yesterday and is a potential 188m boon to the sector. It should enable UK developers to compete more strongly with rival countries such as Canada, which also has its own tax incentives.

We’ve reached out to Scotland’s Government for comment.