Finance Act 2022

Amendment of section 481A of Principal Act (relief for investment in digital games)

42. (1) Section 481A of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in subsection (1)—

(i) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “digital games development company”:

“‘digital games development company’ means a company that—

(a) is resident in the State, or is resident in an EEA State,

(b) carries on a trade of developing digital games that are wholly or principally to be made available to the public on a commercial basis with a view to the realisation of profit, and

(c) is not, or is not part of, an undertaking which would be regarded as an undertaking in difficulty;”,

and

(ii) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “qualifying expenditure”:

“‘qualifying expenditure’, in relation to an interim digital game or a qualifying digital game, is expenditure (the types of which are specified in regulations made under subsection (17)) incurred by the digital games development company on the design, production and testing of a digital game;”,

(b) in subsection (13)—

(i) in paragraph (e) by the deletion of “or”,

(ii) in paragraph (f) by the substitution of “market,” for “market.”, and

(iii) by the insertion of the following paragraphs after paragraph (f):

“(g) the digital games development company is resident in an EEA State other than the State and does not carry on business in the State through a branch or agency, or

(h) the digital games development company has not delivered to the Collector-General a return, in accordance with section 959I, in respect of—

(i) the accounting period referred to in paragraph (a) of the definition of ‘qualifying period’, or

(ii) each accounting period ending in the qualifying period, referred to in paragraph (b) of that definition,

as the case may be.”,

(c) in subsection (14)(d)(ii) by the substitution of “another Member State” for “another relevant Member State”, and

(d) in subsection (16)(a)(i) by the substitution of the following clause for clause (I):

“(I) an EEA State, or”.

(2) Subsection (1) shall come into operation on such day as the Minister for Finance may appoint by order.