Guidance

Claiming Animation Tax Relief for Corporation Tax

Find out if you qualify for Corporation Tax Animation Tax Relief and what you can claim.

Who can claim

Your company can claim Animation Tax Relief on an animation programme if:

  • the programme is certified as British by the British Film Institute
  • the programme is intended for broadcast — this includes streaming online
  • at least 51% of the ‘core costs’ on animation
  • at least 10% of the ‘core costs’ relate to activities in the UK

Core costs are what’s been spent on pre-production, principal photography and post-production.

Your company must be responsible for:

  • pre-production
  • principal photography
  • post-production
  • delivery of the completed programme

Your company must also:

  • be actively engaged in planning and decision-making
  • directly negotiate, contract and pay for rights, goods and services

Animation programmes commissioned together are treat as one programme.

Cultural test

To qualify for creative industry tax reliefs, all animation television programmes must be certified as British. They must pass a cultural test or qualify through an internationally agreed co-production treaty.

The British Film Institute manages certification and qualification on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The British Film Institute will issue:

  • an interim certificate for uncompleted work
  • a final certificate where production has finished

You can find more information about certification on the British Film Institute website.

Who cannot claim

Your company cannot claim the relief if the programme:

  • is an advertisement or promotional programme
  • is a news, current affairs or discussion programme
  • is a quiz or game show, panel show, variety show, or similar programme
  • consists of, or includes an element of, competition or contest
  • is produced for training purposes

What you can claim

You can claim an additional deduction to reduce your profits or to increase a loss. This reduces the amount of any Corporation Tax you need to pay. If you make a loss, some or all of this loss can be surrendered for a payable tax credit at a rate of 25%.

The additional deduction will be the lower of either:

  • 80% of total core expenditure
  • the amount of UK core expenditure

When you can claim

You may make, amend or withdraw a claim to Animation Tax Reliefs up to one year after the company’s filing date.

For accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2024, you may make, amend or withdraw a claim to Animation Tax Relief up to 2 years after the end of the period of account the claim relates to.

HMRC may agree to accept late claims in some circumstances.

How to claim

You can claim for relief on your Company Tax Return. You will need to calculate the amount of:

  • additional deduction due to your company
  • any payable credit due

From 1 April 2024, all claims must be accompanied by an additional information form. This will allow you to provide the necessary evidence to support your claim.

For each production you must provide:

  • a British cultural certificate from the British Film Institute – if an interim certificate is provided, you must send in the final certificate when the programme is complete and the certificate must be in date when you submit it
  • statements of the amount of core costs, split by UK and non-UK costs
  • a breakdown of costs by category

Closure of Animation Tax Relief  — from 1 April 2027

Animation Tax Relief will be closed to all productions from 1 April 2027. You may be able to continue to receive relief under the Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit scheme. 

You cannot claim Animation Tax Relief for any productions that do not start principal photography by 31 March 2025. You may be able to claim an Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit instead.

Further information

You can find detailed guidance for animation production companies, including examples of how the relief is calculated, in the Animation Production Company Manual.

Published 10 February 2020
Last updated 19 January 2024 + show all updates
  1. We have updated the page to include guidance on the Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit scheme and the closure of the Animation Tax Relief scheme from 1 April 2027.

  2. The 'How to claim' section has been updated with a link to 'Support your claim for creative industry tax reliefs' which explains how to provide evidence to support your creative industry reliefs claim.

  3. First published.