§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will list(a) the films which have been certified by her Department since 1997 as a qualifying film for film tax relief, (b) the film production companies which have received film tax relief since 1997 and (c) how much film tax relief has been granted in each year since 1997. [111155]
§ Dr. HowellsDCMS certifies qualifying films as British under the terms of the Films Act 1985. Those certificates may be used in support of a claim for tax relief on the films to which they relate. Claims for726W tax relief are made to the Inland Revenue and I am unable to provide details for reasons of taxpayer confidentiality.
I am arranging for the list of qualifying films for the period from 1997 to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Film production benefits from a number of tax reliefs that accelerate the deduction of expenditure on British qualifying films. The estimated tax cost of relief provided under Section 48 of the Finance (No.2) Act 1997 is £440 million for the period 1997–98 to 2001–02. The tax cost of the other reliefs is estimated to be an additional £70 million a year.