Creative industries tax relief Payouts up 37 per cent

A total of £1.66 billion of tax relief was paid out in relation to the 2021 to 2022 financial year, across all the creative industries tax reliefs. This is a 37 per cent increase from £1.06 billion in the 2019 to 2020 financial year.

The jump was mainly driven by a sharp rise in the amount of High-end television (HETV) tax relief. For claims relating to the 2021 to 2022 financial year, HETV tax relief accounted for 50 per cent of the total amount paid out and Film tax relief accounted for 31 per cent of the total (Figure 1 and Table 1). This is the first year in which the amount of HETV tax relief has exceeded Film tax relief.

There were 475 claims made for HETV relief in relation to the 2021 to 2022 financial year, totalling £829 million of relief. This is an increase of 131 per cent from the previous year, showing a steep increase in HETV relief since the Covid-19 pandemic.

This growth is driven largely by an increase in high-budget productions. The increase in HETV relief is in line with recent statistics produced by the British Film Institute on HETV production expenditure, which has seen substantial growth in recent years.

In contrast to most of the creative industry sectors, in which the number of claims was either in growth, stable or only down slightly, the number of claims from the orchestra category has been less consistent.

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