According to the tax watchdog, Tax Watch, Rockstar Games have been avoiding tax in the UK for many years. This news broke yesterday morning after George Turner’s report released on Sunday, claiming the developer of the Grand Theft Auto series, and subsequently, Grand Theft Auto V: The most profitable piece of entertainment in history, has made money from tax loopholes. This is the result of several loopholes created to incentivize companies to stay in the UK; many of which have said they will be leaving once a majority of England and Wales voted to leave the European Union.

Some islands around the UK are tax loopholes, including the Isle of Man which has zero capital gains tax, inheritance tax, or corporation tax. An individual caught in the controversy of these island loopholes was Formula 1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton; who bought a Bombardier Challenger 605 jet, purportedly worth $27 million, avoiding a reported, $5.2 million in VAT. However, it was also reported that former British PM and Conservative party leader, David Cameron, profited from his father’s tax avoidance. He, alongside other famous faces of the UK such as comedian Jimmy Carr; first Secretary of to the Treasury, Lord James Meyer Sassoon; many members of the royal family, and the Queen did so too.

Now it seems that Rockstar Games, the Edinburgh based developer, has avoided tax and also gained from it too. In the full report by Tax Watch, they point out that the company was given a tax relief by the BFI (British Film Institute) in September of 2015. These tax reliefs are created to create incentives for specific projects to continue boosting the local economy; by hiring people (to pay tax), buy products in the local market (taxed), and continue to create products that can be sold (also taxed). A project in the US which received a tax relief such as this is The Orville, taking a reported $15.8 million from the CFC (California Film Commission) for the third season.

Now, If I am reading the report correctly, the total earnings by Take-Two Interactive’s UK holdings (Rockstar Games) between 2009 and 2018 are, £2,122,124,405 (roughly $3,146,655,726.75). Meanwhile, Rockstar North almost made £350 million in earnings in that time, with the £42.3 million from the BFI making it almost £400 million in under 10 years. With expenses accounted for Rockstar North should have paid £69.7 million in this time.

So the question now is, how did they do it? Well, it seems with the expenses were outweighing the profits. So much so Rockstar North could claim the £42.3 million over the last three years back from the UK government. Tax Watch believes it is part of an agreement between Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar North’s parent company Rockstar Games. The agreement was struck back in 2009 between the Houser’s, whom Tax Watch mistakes for the original creators of the Grand Theft Auto series, and former Rockstar head Leslie Benzies.

Following the stacks of evidence in Tax Watch’s almost four-thousand-word report, it is now up to the HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) to investigate the claims. We want to make it clear, there is nothing illegal in what Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games, Rockstar North, the Houser’s, or Benzies have done here since 2009. However, it is a question of an official report being filed by the UK government into these claims by an independent watchdog.

Rockstar North are not the first to be called out for avoiding corporate tax in the UK. For many years, Facebook has been called tax cheats in many countries, as has Google and Amazon. However, some governmental bodies such as the European Union and Boris Johnson (the present UK PM), want to clamp down on these tech giants.

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