Video games

Every great games business starts with a great idea. And every great idea that grows is supported by the right business structure.

At Moore Kingston Smith, we can help you set up a business that is designed from the get-go to meet your needs, be commercially compliant and – crucially – put you on the path to raising all important funding to get your idea off the ground.

Our services include:

• Advising on company structures
• Managing the company formation process, including assistance with opening a bank account
• Registering for Value Added Tax (VAT) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) schemes with His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
• Providing HR support, including drafting employment contracts and handbooks
• Offering business planning for fundraising
• Advising on tax incentive schemes for start-ups, including Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS)
• Selecting the right accounting system for you

VGTR/VGEC is an invaluable source of funding for games developers but we know it can be tricky to find time to maximise the benefits it brings to your business

Our tax experts can support your VGTR/VGEC claims, manage the filing process and liaise with key stakeholders to secure that all-important funding.

Our services include:

• Advising on eligibility and qualifying spend
• Assisting with VGTR/VGEC application
• Setting up Special Purpose Vehicles to support the application
• Co-ordinating with The British Film Institute (BFI) for sign-off of the application
• Liaising with HMRC

We know that you want to dedicate as much of your time as possible to developing and releasing great games.

That’s why we offer a wide range of business outsourcing and bookkeeping services to help you focus on your invaluable creative work.

With the support of our team and seamless technological processes, we’re able to deliver outsourced support that is flexible to your business’ needs.

This allows us to scale with your business: delivering quality, cost-effective and efficient work in the process.

Outsourcing services include:

• Bookkeeping
• Raising invoices
• Purchase ledger management
• Supplier payment management
• VAT return preparation and submission
• Providing payroll services
• Offering HR support
• Supplying management accounts and benchmarking analysis
• Supporting management information review meetings

Games businesses can get complicated quickly. As your business grows, your monetisation model evolves and your funding structure changes, your tax position will become more complex.

We’re experts in providing expert holistic tax advice to your business that helps resolve those complexities.

Whether we’re advising on compliance issues or supporting you through intricate tax planning involved with global business infrastructures, our team has the experience and expertise to help you understand and navigate the trickiest tax challenges.

Our expertise includes:

• Supporting tax compliance
• Providing effective tax structuring and planning
• Understanding cross-border tax
• Unlocking tax incentives, including Research & Development (R&D) credits and incentives such as EIS and SEIS
• Managing employment taxes

We also understand that the personal and company tax obligations of owner-managed businesses are closely linked together.

That’s why we work alongside our personal tax team and financial advisers to ensure you get the best advice for you and your business.

We provide accounts and audit services to a wide range of clients working within the games sector.

Each auditing assignment is staffed by people from our specialist games team who understand the needs of the industry.

As a result, our sector-specific knowledge allows us to complete work efficiently and provide constructive, pragmatic suggestions for system and procedure improvements – enhancing your business in the process.

We know that every great growing games business is supported by incredible skilled talent.

That’s why we offer a range of services advising on all aspects of employing a workforce to ensure you have the right team to thrive.

Our services include:

• Advising on employee incentives, including designing and implementing share option schemes, and bonus schemes
• Managing employment taxes
• Advising on employment law
• Supporting the provision of contracts
• Delivering employee and performance reviews
• Advising on pensions
• Supporting the hiring of freelancers, including understanding off payroll working through IR35

The video games industry is a dynamic, rapidly evolving sector, where years of hard work can suddenly deliver dramatic success for games developers. When this happens, we’re here to transform the infrastructure of your business to make sure you scale successfully.

We will identify key crunch points for reassessing your business model and advise on adaptations for your structure to meet the short term challenges of rapid growth.

Our advisers – steeped in sector expertise and backed by an extensive industry network – can then help you step back to think strategically about what comes next for your business: improving its performance, driving value and reaching your full profit potential.

On the other side, although games developers operate at a very high standard, many often do not reach their full potential in terms of profit.

Our strategic growth services help leaders:

• Identify where the key drivers and opportunities of valuation growth lie
• Assess whether the business has the correct infrastructure to fully achieve its objectives and maximise enterprise value
• Identify areas for improvement that will optimise business performance and enterprise value
• Ensure those prioritised improvements are realistically achievable and built into a clear, compelling strategy
• Bring clarity, purpose, focus and control back to the forefront of the leadership agenda

When the time is right to exit your games business, our corporate finance experts, who specialise in the sector, are here to help.

We assist games developers, co-developers and other owner-managed, founder-led games services businesses in navigating the complexities of scaling, selling, acquiring and investing.

By using a tailored approach to both the industry and each business, we enable our clients to maximize the value of their games business as they exit: delivering strong returns for years of hard work.

Our services include:

• Providing a valuation of the business and IP by assessing the full value of the business, including game franchises, intellectual property (IP) and in-game assets, which play a pivotal role in determining the market price
• Identifying the right buyer by considering the right strategic fit, whether it’s a larger publisher, a private equity firm, or a competitor seeking new IP, technology or talent
• Negotiating the best deal by ensuring the optimal value is realized by navigating complex negotiations, including game rights, revenue streams and future royalties
• Managing the sales process by overseeing the entire exit strategy – from initial discussions to the final transaction, ensuring the process is smooth and efficient, while protecting the business’s long-term interests
• Holistic support across M&A, tax, and accounting to provide a comprehensive service that covers all aspects of the exit, ensuring tax efficiency and compliance throughout the transaction

Additionally, our team plays a key role in helping acquirers within the games sector with their buy-and-build strategies. This includes identifying target acquisitions, evaluating game IP portfolios, raising capital for expansion, and managing the entire acquisition process to foster growth and market consolidation.

The games industry is a global sector. That’s why our connections to partners around the world make us an invaluable supporter of video games businesses.

We are part of Moore Global, an accounting, audit and advisory network with over 228 offices around the world.

Through Moore Global, we ensure that all our international clients receive a completely streamlined service.

If you are considering expanding internationally, we can help by:

• Providing an overview of tax environments of key territories, with insight into the incentives available to games developers in these areas
• Coordinating with our international counterparts to ensure a seamless transition and setup
• Advising on group restructuring, global mobility and immigration
• Supporting on cross-border taxation
• Facilitating introductions to key advisers and industry contacts in the region