The UK declares war on Canada

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lultor said:

Dodece said:
I am terribly confused isn't Canada doing what a competent government is supposed to do. Encourage foreign investment in their economy, and strengthen their local economy with good paying jobs. What a novel concept sounds like something Britain should consider. I am not even seeing unfair competition here its not like the economies in question are disproportionate to one another.

I might see the point if there were game development sweat shops with poorly paid Canadians sweating over hot keyboards. With no benefits and a overbearing boss that brings a cattle prod to work every morning to keep the peons in line during their sixteen hour shifts. While has special assistant hides the employees shoes and sprinkled broken glass outside the building.

Nothing will come of this anyway its my experience in life that any group or organization that use apostrophes in its title is the kind of organization that will never commit to anything. Hell its hard to even be intimidated by such a group without first saying what exactly is it you do again? I am also reasonably sure such a group also accumulates pointless tasks then need never be assigned.

 

Governments arent supposed to unfairly support companies so that they can beat the competition in other countries, if uk decided to give their game companies money and tax breaks then canada would be upset and screwed aswell and it can end up a worldwide trade war where all governments start supporting their video game companies then where would we be? The companies get rich off the governments fighting each other for development in this sector. Its similar to subsidizing farmers so that they can sell their goods cheap, its similar to cheap labor in that the government pays part of the costs, in this case it seems to be in the form of tax cuts which is debatable how unfair an advantage it gives but the principal is still the same. For fair trade to work companies need to have equal opportunities wherever they do their business.

Although Canada actually does deserve some of the blame over this there's something that hasn't been mentioned in these news stories. Basically videogame studios and publishers in the UK want the same tax breaks that the British film industry enjoys. Many of the companies complaining don't actually plan on moving to Canada, instead they feel that videogames should be treated the same way as movies are. So it's a little hypocritical of the UK to be speaking out about these tax credits when they do the exact same thing with movies.

For reference here's an article about the British film tax credits...

http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2006/12/06/afx3232143.html

UK's Brown confirms new film tax credits

12.06.06, 8:18 AM ET

"LONDON (AFX) - UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown confirmed a new set of tax breaks for production companies making films in Britain will come into effect at the start of 2007.

The confirmation came as Brown delivered his tenth and probably last pre-budget report to the House of Commons.

In his March annual budget, the Chancellor relaxed the rules governing tax breaks for movie companies making films in the UK.

Production houses spending 25 pct of a film's budget in the UK will be able to enjoy the new tax credit, compared with an earlier proposal for a 40 pct qualifying threshold.

Under the new rules, films with UK production budgets of up to 20 mln stg can earn a tax credit of 20 pct. For bigger budget films, the tax credit level will be 16 pct.

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