The Chancellor announced in today's Autumn Statement that
Creative Sector Tax Reliefs will be extended to include the
production of children's television programmes from April 2015.
As with other creative sector tax reliefs, it is expected that
productions will benefit from a tax credit for qualifying
expenditure, with the rate set at 25%. There will be a consultation
into a similar relief for orchestras, with a view to its
introduction from April 2016.
Sally Jones, tax director at Deloitte, comments:
"Ofcom figures show that our children watch almost 17 hours
of television per week. Measures that encourage the production of
high quality, educational and also entertaining programmes, is
great news. The UK has a great track record of doing just that
– (the Teletubbies, for example, were and still are
cutting-edge) – but most children's programmes make
little, if any, money. The new tax relief will allow programmes to
be commissioned that otherwise wouldn't be made.
