Fighting the tax avoidance war

Some years ago, the UK Government decided to do its bit for the British film industry by introducing specific tax relief for investors in British films. The legislation accelerated tax relief, and for smaller films provided 100% write-off for production and acquisition costs on qualifying films that cost £15m or less to make. The idea was that investors would put their cash into high-risk British films. After the introduction of film reliefs, tax-efficient investments appeared in the marketplace, which were designed to remove or eliminate investment risks. Generally, such products used n...