Turkish video games studios don’t pay any tax on their earnings, say Video games from Turkiye advisory board head Tugbek Olek.
Talking at Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2024, Olek outlined the Turkish authorities’s tax and funding incentives to assist develop its burgeoning video games business which now consists of the likes of Dream Video games, Peak Video games and Rollic.
Olek mentioned designers and builders employed at these studios are additionally exempt from taxes too, and are excused from paying revenue tax.
Investing in gaming can also be tax-free, as Turkey doesn’t have capital video games tax. Olek mentioned which means if there’s a $10 million exit from an funding, that cash is retained and untaxed.
“I do know it sounds too good to be true, however consider me, it’s even higher than that,” mentioned Olek.
Incentivising develpoment
Different incentives out there to native builders together with the federal government supporting 50% of the salaries of two growth employees as much as $50k, in addition to bills as much as 80% for journey, lodging and a sales space at world occasions (limits apply).
In the meantime, the federal government helps video games corporations with platform commissions. When Apple and Google take their 30% reduce, for instance, the federal government pays again 50% of that determine as much as $100k.
Olek claimed that gaining access to these incentives is rather more easy than in different nations just like the UK, noting most incentives require “only a single sheet of paper”, and that the federal government sometimes pays out inside three to 6 months.
It must be famous that the incentives are for analysis & growth and design..
Rising business
Olek claimed that there are probably now roughly 850 studios in Turkey’s video games business, based mostly on startup knowledge from Startups.Watch that estimated that there have been 785 video games startups within the nation proper now – not together with giant builders like Peak Video games and Rollic.
50% of these studios are situated in Istanbul, which he mentioned made the town the second greatest video games growth hub in Europe after London. In the meantime, Ankara was the second largest video games hub in Turkey.