El Cid Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Mr George Osborne committed £25m of taxpayers money to support the Star Wars film. It will be a big money spinner, will the tax payer get this £25 million back, with interest? Is it a real subsidy, or just the film not paying tax? I thought it was a Walt Disney film, they are not British, why £25 million, how does this compare to other industries, steel for instance? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/star-wars-george-osborne-given-credit-in-the-force-awakens-a6778246.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxy lady Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Mr George Osborne committed £25m of taxpayers money to support the Star Wars film. It will be a big money spinner, will the tax payer get this £25 million back, with interest? Is it a real subsidy, or just the film not paying tax? I thought it was a Walt Disney film, they are not British, why £25 million, how does this compare to other industries, steel for instance? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/star-wars-george-osborne-given-credit-in-the-force-awakens-a6778246.html Walt Disney not British yet the Star Wars films are largely produced in Britain. There's a clue in there somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L00b Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 (edited) Do you happen to know how much of J.J. Abrams' $200m budget did Disney spend in professional fees for both production at Pinewood and post-production by the British digital Special Effects industry in Soho? I don't, but I expect that it's the lion's share of it, given that: In May 2013, it was confirmed that Episode VII would be filmed in the United Kingdom.[77] Representatives from Lucasfilm met with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to agree to produce Episode VII in the UK.[77] <...> In February 2014, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) announced plans to open a facility in London, citing Disney's Star Wars films as a catalyst for the expansion. You still can't catch flies with vinegar in the 21st century, any more or better than you could in times past Edited December 18, 2015 by L00b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Cid Posted December 18, 2015 Author Share Posted December 18, 2015 Walt Disney not British yet the Star Wars films are largely produced in Britain. There's a clue in there somewhere. Who got the £25 million? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L00b Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 (edited) Who got the £25 million?Whoever the Treasury paid it to (or gifted it by way of tax rebates, or <etc.>...there's many more than one way of financing £25m). We as a country put £25m up. We got the lion's share of the production budget spent (and taxed with VAT, NI, etc) here instead of California. Or Luxemburg, which is still the usual go-to place of the European film industry for purposes of tax efficiency (look at e.g. Luc Besson's productions of the past 10 years ). I'm inferring causality, because if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck... There most likely was a beauty contest. We won it. Quids in, or at least break-even (but good for the British industry regardless, kept busy and gifted a rather nice PR boost on the back of the movie's global success). As you asked about other industries, this is the exact same principle as when subsidies are offered to car manufacturers for locating their assembling plants here instead of wherever else. And as with anything commercial, there comes a point at which you need to stop flogging a dead horse (steel, coal...and car building soon, as these days Slovakia is where it's at). Edited December 18, 2015 by L00b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxy lady Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 (edited) Who got the £25 million? As Loob said. You need a carrot to catch an antelope. The fact that the facility has expanded to cope with the Star Wars series has attracted a lot of film makers from around the world to a facility that can meet their animation needs.. If £25m was injected into this hi-tech industry it is likely to repay in taxes many times over in the next decade. It does sound like a rather better investment than the Olympic Games. Edited December 18, 2015 by foxy lady Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geared Posted December 18, 2015 Share Posted December 18, 2015 Tax breaks for big films are quite common IIRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Cid Posted December 20, 2015 Author Share Posted December 20, 2015 Harrison Ford has reportedly been paid £16.7 million for reprising the role of Han Solo and will also get 0.5 per cent of the film’s gross earnings, estimated to be £1.3 billion. When bankers have earned that much money, they slap an extra tax on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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