Guidance: Claiming Children’s Television Tax Relief for Corporation Tax

Who can claim

Children’s Television Tax Relief is an extension of high-end television and animation relief but is specifically for the producers of children’s television programmes.

Your company can claim Children’s Television Tax Relief on a programme if:

• the programme is certified as British by the British Film Institute
• the programme is intended for broadcast — this includes streaming online
• the primary audience for the programme is expected to be under the age of 15
• at least 10% of the ‘core costs’ relate to activities in the UK

Core costs are what is spent on pre-production, principal photography and post-production.

Quizzes, game shows, and other programmes including an element of competition or contest may qualify if the prize total does not exceed £1,000.

Programmes commissioned together are treated as one programme.

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

Cultural test

To qualify for creative industry tax reliefs, all films, television programmes or video games 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 Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The British Film Institute will issue:

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

If you have any queries concerning certification, email: certifications@bfi.org.uk or write to:

Who cannot claim

Your company cannot claim Children’s Television Tax Relief if the programme is:

• an advertisement or promotional programme
• a news, current affairs or discussion programme
• a panel show, variety show, or similar programme
• a broadcast of a live event, including theatrical and artistic performance
• produced for training purposes

What you can claim

You can claim an additional deduction to reduce your profits or to increase a loss. This will reduce the amount of any Corporation Tax you will 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 creative industry tax reliefs up to one year after the company’s filing date.

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

For each production you should provide: 

• a British cultural certificate from the British Film Institute — an interim certificate is provided when the production is in development, you must also provide the final certificate when the programme is complete
• statements of the amount of core expenditure, split between UK and non-UK expenditure
• a breakdown of expenditure by category

Further information

You can find detailed guidance for children’s television companies, including examples of how the relief is calculated, in the Television Production Company Manual.