Creative industries statistics commentary: August 2025
Published 28 August 2025
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1. Introduction
This is an Official Statistics publication produced by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). It provides information on the number and value of claims for Film, High-End Television, Animation, Children’s Television, Video Games, Theatre, Orchestra, and Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Reliefs, for the financial years up to March 2024.
In this publication we have included claims made for Audio-Visual Expenditure Credits (AVEC) and Video Game Expenditure Credits (VGEC) for the first time, as AVEC and VGEC can be claimed on expenditure incurred since 1 January 2024. As the existing tax reliefs (for films, high-end TV, children’s TV, animation and video games) will continue until 31 March 2027, the publication will cover claims for both the tax reliefs and the expenditure credits that will replace them.
The statistical tables are published on GOV.UK alongside this commentary document, together with the background information and quality report.
This is an annual release, and the next release is planned to be in Summer 2026.
All figures are provided on an accruals basis. This means that claims are allocated to the financial year in which the claimant’s accounting period ends. Tables 1.1 to 8.1 provide statistics on the total number of claims and amount paid for each relief per financial year, while tables 1.2 to 8.2 provide breakdowns by claim size. There is a lag in the data as companies have a year after the end of their accounting period to file their Corporation Tax return, and a further year to make, withdraw or amend a claim for the Creative industries tax reliefs.
Statistical contacts: N. Chowdhury, J. Fox and M. Rowe-Brown; ct.statistics@hmrc.gov.uk
Media enquiries: HMRC Press Office; news.desk@hmrc.gov.uk
2. Summary
A total of £2.40 billion of relief was paid out in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, across all the creative industries tax reliefs and expenditure credits. This is an increase from £2.19 billion in relation to the 2022 to 2023 financial year. As shown in figure 1, there were modest increases in relief paid across most reliefs, with the largest proportional rises relating to Theatre Tax Relief (TTR) and Children’s TV Tax Relief (CTV), and a small decrease in the value of Film Tax Relief (FTR) paid out. For claims relating to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, High-End TV (HETV) Tax Relief accounted for nearly half (46%) of the total amount paid out and Film Tax Relief accounted for 22% of the total (figure 1 and table 1). This is similar to the previous year’s results.
This is also the first publication to include claims made for AVEC and VGEC. However, since AVEC and VGEC can only be claimed on expenditure incurred since 1 January 2024, there are few AVEC and VGEC claims that relate to 2023 to 2024 financial year. Therefore, the figures in table 1, and the accompanying tables which cover the 2023 to 2024 financial year, include claims made for both the tax reliefs and AVEC/VGEC.
Figure 1: Creative industries tax reliefs (£ million, accruals basis) paid in relation to financial years ending 2022, 2023 and 2024
Table 1: Number of companies, claims, projects, and amount of creative industries tax relief (including AVEC and VGEC) paid out (£ million) in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year
| Relief | Number of companies | Number of claims | Number of projects | Amount of relief paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Film | 830 | 960 | 980 | 534 |
| High-End TV | 570 | 685 | 690 | 1,110 |
| Animation | 105 | 120 | 145 | 33 |
| Video Games | 495 | 560 | 1,140 | 327 |
| Children’s TV | 80 | 90 | 145 | 56 |
| Theatre | 1,320 | 1,380 | 4,205 | 261 |
| Orchestra | 250 | 260 | 745 | 50 |
| Museums and galleries exhibition | 270 | 270 | 2,155 | 28 |
| Total | 3,920 | 4,325 | 10,205 | 2,399 |
3. AVEC and VGEC
The five audio-visual tax reliefs (for film, HETV, children’s TV, animation and video games) are being phased out and will be replaced by expenditure credits, AVEC and VGEC. During the transitional period, companies may choose whether to claim for the tax reliefs or the new expenditure credits for their current productions. However, productions that commenced on or after 1 April 2025 must claim under the expenditure credits, and all productions must claim the expenditure credits from 1 April 2027.
The latest statistics are based on claims received up to and including 11 June 2025, and cover accounting periods up to and including the 2023 to 2024 financial year. As noted above, only a small number of AVEC and VGEC claims relate to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, so we do not present these separately from tax relief claims.
Instead, table 2 shows the total number and value of claims made for AVEC and VGEC to date, by relief type, covering claims relating to both the 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025 financial years. Unlike the figures in table 1, these are not uplifted to account for claims yet to be received, and represent only claims that have been paid out to date. In next year’s publication, for the 2024 to 2025 financial year, we expect to have received sufficient claims across all schemes to present data on AVEC, VGEC, and the tax reliefs, separately.
Table 2: Number of companies, claims, projects, and value of expenditure credits paid out (£ million) for AVEC and VGEC to date
| Relief type | Relief | Number of companies | Number of claims | Number of productions | Amount of relief paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animation | AVEC | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| Children’s TV | AVEC | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| Film | AVEC | 15 | 15 | 15 | 11 |
| High-end TV | AVEC | 15 | 20 | 15 | 35 |
| Video games | VGEC | 15 | 15 | 35 | 8 |
In the sections that follow, where an individual tax relief (e.g. Film Tax Relief) is referenced, this will represent claims made for both the tax reliefs and the expenditure credits.
4. Film Tax Relief
Film Tax Relief (FTR) allows qualifying film production companies to make a deduction in their taxable profits and/or surrender a loss in return for a payable tax credit. A company may make several tax relief claims for a film during the production process. A claim may cover several films.
Since FTR was introduced in 2007, companies have made claims for 5,805 films and £6,438 million has been paid out.
Number and value of claims by financial year
There were 960 claims made for FTR in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, totalling £534 million of relief (figure 2) paid out. This is a 3% decrease in the amount of relief paid compared with the previous year, though the number of claims increased by 9% (figure 3). The decrease is mainly due to a fall in the amount paid out relating to high-value claims (over £5m).
The value of FTR paid remains below pre-COVID levels, in part due to a number of films being released on streaming services and claiming relief as TV programmes, rather than FTR. This trend may change in future years as the number of AVEC claims increases, which requires productions with both a theatrical release and a broadcast release to claim AVEC as films. The introduction of Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC) element of AVEC is also expected to increase the relief paid on film productions in future years. Data on claims for IFTC will first be available in the 2026 edition of these statistics, as claims for this relief could not be made prior to April 2025.
Figure 2: Amount of Film Tax Relief paid (£ million, accrual basis) relating to financial years ending 2007 to 2024
Figure 3: Number of Film Tax Relief claims, financial years ending 2007 to 2024
Of all claims made in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, 64% were for £100,000 or less. The proportion remains the same (64%) as the previous year. Despite only 2% of claims relating to the 2023 to 2024 financial year being for over £5 million, these accounted for 61% of the total amount paid.
5. High-End Television Tax Relief
High-End Television (HETV) Tax Relief allows qualifying production companies to make a deduction in their taxable profits and/or surrender a loss in return for a payable tax credit. A company may make several tax relief claims for a programme during the production process. A claim may cover several programmes.
Since HETV tax relief was introduced in 2013, companies have made claims for 1,650 programmes and £5,053 million has been paid out.
Number and value of claims by financial year
There were 685 claims made for HETV relief in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year (figure 5), totalling £1,110 million of relief paid out. This is an increase of 3% from the previous year (figure 4). The amount of HETV relief paid out remains at record levels following a substantial increase in the value of HETV relief in recent years due to large amounts of inward investment and an increase in feature length films created for streaming services, many of which claim HETV relief instead of FTR.
Figure 4: Amount of HETV Tax Relief paid (£ million, accrual basis) relating to financial years ending 2014 to 2024
Figure 5: Number of HETV claims, financial years ending 2014 to 2024
For claims relating to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, 43% were for £250,000 or less. However, these only accounted for 2% of the total amount paid. High-value claims (over £2 million) accounted for three-quarters of the total amount paid. This proportion is similar to the previous year.
6. Animation Tax Relief
Animation Tax Relief (ATR) allows qualifying animation companies to make a deduction in their taxable profits and/or surrender a loss in return for a payable tax credit. A company may make several tax relief claims for a programme during the production process. A claim may cover several programmes.
Since ATR was introduced in 2013, companies have made claims for 645 programmes and £199 million has been paid out.
Number and value of claims by financial year
There were 120 claims made for ATR in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, totalling £33 million of relief paid out. Both the number of claims and amount paid out have increased in recent years (see figure 6 and figure 7).
Figure 6: Amount of Animation Tax Relief paid (£ million, accrual basis) relating to financial years ending 2014 to 2024
Figure 7: Number of Animation Tax Relief claims, financial years ending 2014 to 2024
For claims relating to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, 33% were for values of over £250,000. This is an increase of 9% compared to the previous year. These claims accounted for 80% of the total amount of relief paid.
7. Children’s Television Tax Relief
Children’s Television Tax Relief (CTR) allows qualifying companies to make a deduction in their taxable profits and/or surrender a loss in return for a payable tax credit. It is an extension of the high-end television and animation reliefs, but is specifically aimed at the producers of children’s television programmes.
Since CTR was introduced in 2015, companies have made claims for 725 programmes and £209 million has been paid out.
Number and value of claims by financial year
There were 90 claims made for CTR in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year (figure 9), totalling £56 million in relief paid out (figure 8).
Figure 8: Amount of Children’s TV Tax Relief paid (£ million, accrual basis) relating to financial years ending 2016 to 2024
Figure 9: Number of Children’s TV Tax Relief claims, financial years ending 2016 to 2024
Only 18% of the claims made in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year were for amounts over £500,000, but these accounted for 84% of the total amount of relief paid. The large increase in amount paid compared to the previous year is driven by an increase in the number of high-budget claims made.
8. Video Games Tax Relief
Video Games Tax Relief (VGTR) allows qualifying video games companies to make a deduction in their taxable profits and/or surrender a loss in return for a payable tax credit. A company may make several tax relief claims for a game during the production process. A claim may cover several games.
Since VGTR was introduced in 2014, companies have made claims for 3,165 games and £1,837 million has been paid out.
Number and value of claims by financial year
There were 560 claims made for VGTR in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year (figure 11), totalling £327 million of relief paid out. The amount of relief paid increased by 12% compared with the previous year (figure 10). This is mainly due to a rise in high-value claims (£1 million to £2 million). VGTR has grown consistently in both the number and value of claims since its introduction.
Figure 10: Amount of Video Games Tax Relief paid (£ million, accrual basis) relating to financial years ending 2015 to 2024
Figure 11: Number of Video Games Tax Relief claims, financial years ending 2015 to 2024
The majority of claims relating to the 2023 to 2024 financial year tended to be for smaller amounts, with 41% of all claims being for £50,000 or less; however, these claims only represent 2% of the total amount of relief paid. Claims over £500,000 account for 81% of the total amount of relief paid. This proportion is similar to the previous year.
9. Theatre Tax Relief
Theatre Tax Relief (TTR) was introduced in September 2014. Unlike the audio-visual reliefs, theatrical production companies are not required to pass a cultural test to be eligible to claim tax relief. A theatre production company may make several claims during the production process. A claim may cover several productions.
Since TTR was introduced, companies have made claims in relation to 29,025 productions and £892 million has been paid out.
Number and value of claims by financial year
There were 1,380 claims made for TTR in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, totalling £261 million in relief paid out. This is a 15% increase in claims (figure 13) and a 65% increase in relief paid (figure 12) compared to the previous year.
In 2021, the government introduced a temporary increase in the relief rates of TTR, Orchestra Tax Relief, and Museum and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief, for productions which commenced production on or after 27 October 2021. This increased the tax credit rate for touring or orchestral productions to 50% and non-touring productions to 45%, from 25% and 20% respectively: more than doubling the value of relief available. As a result, the value of TTR relief relating to the 2023 to 2024 financial year has increased substantially, with the majority of claims in the 2023 to 2024 financial year now applying the increased rates of relief, which did not previously affect all productions. The increased relief rates may have also contributed to an increase in the number of claims, which are now 37% higher than pre-COVID levels.
At Spring Budget 2024, the relief rates were permanently set at 45% for touring productions and orchestras and 40% for non-touring productions. The new rates apply from 1 April 2025.
Figure 12: Amount of Theatre Tax Relief paid (£ million, accruals basis) relating to financial years ending 2015 to 2024
Figure 13: Number of Theatre Tax Relief claims, financial years ending 2015 to 2024
The highest proportion of claims made in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year is for smaller amounts, with 23% of all claims being for £10,000 or less. In comparison, claims of over £500,000 represented just 8% of the claims made but 65% of the total amount of relief paid.
10. Orchestra Tax Relief
Orchestra Tax Relief (OTR) was introduced in April 2016. Orchestral production companies are not required to pass a cultural test to be eligible to claim tax relief. An orchestral production company may make a number of claims, receiving payments at stages throughout the production process. A claim may cover several productions. If a company has made a concert series election covering multiple productions, then the series of concerts is treated as a single production.
Since OTR was introduced, companies have made claims for 4,475 productions and £164 million has been paid out.
Number and value of claims by financial year
There were 260 claims made for OTR in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year (figure 15), totalling £50 million in relief paid out. This is a 39% increase in amount paid out compared to the previous year (figure 14). The increase in OTR relief rates has contributed to the increase. The number of claims is now higher than pre-COVID levels, although the number of productions has not reached pre-COVID levels.
Figure 14: Amount of Orchestra Tax Relief paid (£ million, accruals basis) relating to financial years ending 2017 to 2024
Figure 15: Number of Orchestra Tax Relief claims, financial years ending 2017 to 2024
Claims of £5,000 or less represented 27% of the claims relating to the 2023 to 2024 financial years. While only 11% of all claims were for amounts over £250,000, these represent 75% of the amount of relief paid.
11. Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief
Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief (MGETR) was introduced in April 2017. Exhibitions are not required to pass a cultural test to be eligible to claim tax relief. Relief is only available to charitable companies, and to subsidiaries of charities and local authorities. Tax credits are capped per exhibition at a maximum of £100,000 (touring) or £80,000 (non-touring). A museum or gallery may make a number of claims, receiving payments at stages throughout the exhibition process. A claim may cover several exhibitions.
Since MGETR was introduced, companies have made claims for 11,145 exhibitions and £115 million has been paid out.
Number and value of claims by financial year
There were 270 claims made for MGETR in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year, totalling £28 million in relief paid out. This represents an increase in the number of claims and productions, and the amount of relief paid compared to the previous year (figure 16 and figure 17). The increase in relief paid out is in part due to the increase in relief rates for MGETR.
Figure 16: Amount of Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief paid (£ million, accruals basis) relating to financial years ending 2018 to 2024
Figure 17: Number of Museums and Galleries Exhibition claims, financial years ending 2018 to 2024
The highest proportion of claims made in relation to the 2023 to 2024 financial year is for smaller amounts, with 31% of all claims being for £25,000 or less. Only 13% of claims were for over £200,000, but these accounted for 54% of the total amount of relief paid.