Spain Moves Forward on Video Games Tax Incentives and eSports
Publicado el 16th diciembre 2016
The Spanish video games community has lately received two important good news. On the one hand, the Spanish legislature has given course to two bills addressed to facilitating the investment flows into the industry in the Spanish market. On the other, the industry has recently welcomed the establishment of the Spanish Videogames and eSports Federation (Federación Española de Videojuegos y eSports – “Feves”).
Attracting Investment With Tax Incentives
The two legislative initiatives are specifically meant to attract foreign investment and to strengthen the development of the sector in Spain. The President of the Spanish Videogames Association has publicly called on the Culture and Industry official institutions in Spain to work together to “level up” and boost the sector’s international relevance. Towards that, tax and employment measures will be necessary to build an eco-system in which the sector can thrive.
In particular, one of the aims of the initiatives is to equate the videogames industry to the cinema and theatre ones as it refers to the tax rebates received by investors. These, together with tax reliefs for the export of cinema productions, have helped to make Spanish creators known abroad. Thus, this assortment of measures will likely prove helpful for parallel industries such as interactive entertainment.
A Loud and Unified Voice: Spanish eSports Stakeholders Organize
Alongside the legislative initiatives, the Spanish Videogames and eSports Federation has been born in yet another endeavor to boost and establish the industry in Spain. It is no longer news that eSports are a mass media phenomenon catching the attention and free time of more viewers every day.
Therefore, the Spanish Youth Institute, assigned to the Ministry of Health, Social Affairs and Equality, has favoured the establishment of Feves that, unlike the developers’ association or the Spanish Videogames Association, is meant to emphasize the major “asset” of the industry: the user.
As it is described in Feves‘ webpage, the main rationale behind the figure adopted – a federation – is that it has the adequate administrative character to unite users, entities, collectives and the numerous associations with shared interests in the sector.
