Confirmed: Quebec games tax relief slashed to as low as 24%

Quebec’s tax subsidies have been slashed to as low as 24 per cent on games produced in English, Develop can confirm.

Last week a report suggested multinational confirms in the Canada province could lose as much as 20 per cent of their benefits as part of $500m cuts.

But according to Canadian Interactive Alliance CEO Serge Landry, the sweeping budget cuts will affect all 130 studios or so in the province which have previously enjoyed a maximum 37.5 per cent tax credit on salaries. Studios in the region include Ubisoft’s enormous Montreal office behind the likes of Assassin’s Creed and Watch Dogs, as well as WB Montreal, BioWare and Beenox.

Relief will fall to 30 per cent if the title is produced in French, and to 24 per cent in another language, including English.

Although subsidies have been dropped to as far as 24 per cent, this is still higher than the UK’s rate of 25 per cent. In the UK, developers can only claim back on up to 80 per cent of their production costs. Studios in Quebec can claim back on all of their costs.

The cut in games tax relief was made effective immediately as of June 5th.

We’ll provide more details on the matter when we have them.