
Some people in the UK film industry say that the new tax rules that close a tax loophole could have a detrimental effect upon the industry.
Essentially what happened was the government took away the right of those who invested in high-risk films which resulted in losses, to reduce their taxes based upon those losses.
Some films that had had large UK money involved were X-Men: The Last Stand and Garfield 2. Duncan Reid, head of investment at Ingenious Media said that there would definitely be a "pull out" in the UK film industry as a result. "The
advantages of being able to write off losses against tax were really important for attracting investors," he said.
There are some that feel that the film industry has been unfairly targeted, a spokeswoman for the UK Film Council responded saying, "This is not about film, it's about tax avoidance. It's part of an ongoing crackdown by the government."
Another aspect of this that produced chagrin in some was that the "new regime was introduced without notice."
Talking to trade paper Screen Daily, Paul Brett of Prescience Film Finance added that "We've got funding that we won't be able to use. A lot of UK films that were going to shoot over the next few weeks are going to fall apart."
"It would surely have been better to have a consultation and transitional period," says John Whiting, a tax partner at accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers.







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