The first session of the new Tax Credit Videogames, opened on December 15, will close at midnight on January 31, with coverage for 2021 equal to 5 million.
Tax Credit Videogames: what you need to know
IIDEA, the trade association representing the video game industry in Italy, expresses the his satisfaction with the opening of the first session of the Tax Credit Videogames. This is the MIC measure that recognizes a tax credit for the production of video games. The credit is equal to 25% of development costs, up to € 1 million per company.
The Association has collaborated and will continue to work side by side with the MIC Cinema and Audiovisual Directorate General to facilitate the success of this measure. A move that became operational only today five years after its first introduction into the Cinema Law of November 14, 2016. The Videogames Tax Credit is a support tool for the video game industry that has already been successfully adopted in many European countries. This makes it possible to attract significant investments and create hundreds of new highly skilled jobs. It is therefore a measure potentially capable of changing the sector in Italy.
An important fund but definitely lower than European standards
The financial envelope for the first year, however, is equal to only 5 million, as a result of the decree for the distribution of the Cinema and Audiovisual Fund of 5 February 2021. An endowment decidedly below what they do in the rest of Europe. Just think of France or Germany with his own 50 million a year. But also to smaller countries, as in the most recent case, Ireland. The latter, last October, announced the establishment of a tax credit for video games that it will recognize up to 25 million euros for single production.
It is therefore evident, underlines IIDEA, that the financial coverage provided by Italy is seriously insufficient and if we want our country to be truly competitive in this sector and capable of attracting greater investments from Italian companies and large international publishers, we must aim for to increase the capacity of the measure starting from the next decree for the distribution of the Cinema and Audiovisual Fund 2022 – all the more so now that the fund in question was recently financed in the Budget Law with the record amount of 750 million euros – and to remove or raise significantly the current limit of 1 million per company.
The first session of the Videogames Tax Credit, opened on December 15th, will close at midnight on 31 January 2022. Interested companies can apply through the DGCOL online portal, available on the DG Cinema and Audiovisual website.