Statistics show that HMRC paid out £2.4 billion (€2.7bn) in creative industries tax reliefs and expenditure credits for the year to March 31st 2024 – a 10 per cent increase from £2.19 billion in the previous year. High-end TV reliefs continue to dominate the picture with claims at record levels of £1.1 billion. In fact, […]

Research by leading audit, tax and consulting firm, RSM UK, has highlighted the hurdles media businesses face when claiming research and development (R&D) tax reliefs. In a recent survey of media firms, 40 per cent had made at least one claim for R&D tax relief. Of these businesses, less than a quarter (24 per cent) […]

The London High Court has ruled that Avanti Communications, a London-based speciality satellite operator, was correct in assessing its all-important spectrum as a relevant asset in its recent financial reconstruction. The decision, by Mr Justice Johnson and published on April 12th by the National Law Review, was crucially important to Avanti. The Court’s background to […]

Statistics show that HMRC paid out £1.66 billion (€1.94bn) in creative industries tax reliefs for the year to March 31st 2022 – a 36 per cent increase from the previous year. This was largely due to an impressive rise in high-end TV reliefs which have increased by 131 per cent to £829 million and now […]

The Public Accounts Committee of the UK House of Commons has said that the success of the Digital Services Tax is tempered by concern about future avoidance or evasion by Big Tech.  As long ago as 2012, the Public Accounts Committee called on HMRC to address multinationals avoiding UK corporation tax by moving money to […]

A man who sold illegal devices that bypassed paid-for TV content – costing legitimate service providers more than £2 million (€2.25m) – has been jailed. Daniel Aimson was sentenced to 12 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud at Manchester Crown Court in the northwest of England. In 2017, Greater Manchester […]