About the digital games tax offset
The Digital games tax offset (DGTO) is a refundable tax offset for eligible expenditure incurred in developing digital games in Australia. The amount of the offset is 30% of a company’s total qualifying Australian development expenditure (QADE) as certified by the Minister for the Arts.
To be an eligible recipient a company must be an Australian tax resident or a foreign tax resident with a permanent establishment in Australia. An offset can be claimed by a company when the company has been issued a completion, porting, or ongoing development certificate from the Minister for the Arts.
Complete in this section, labels A and B.
A – Current year refundable DGTO amount being claimed
Write at item 24 – label A the amount you are claiming for DGTO.
The amount of the refundable tax offset you can claim for an income year is 30% of the total of QADE identified in certificates issued to you from the Minister for the Arts for the income year.
This amount is also to be included as part of your total in the Calculation statement at label E Refundable tax offsets.
The maximum amount of the offset that you and companies that are connected or affiliated with you can collectively claim is $20 million in an income year.
B – Total amount of current year DGTO already claimed or being claimed by related companies
Write at item 24 – label B the amount of DGTO that:
- has already been claimed in relation to the income year by companies that are connected with or affiliated with you, and
- will be claimed by companies that are connected with or affiliated with you in relation to the income year.
Don't include the amount that you have included at item 24 – label A.
If there are no companies that you are connected with or that you are an affiliate of that have already claimed or will claim the DGTO in the relevant income year, indicate nil (write 0).
You should ensure that if you have any connected or affiliated companies that are claiming the DGTO, the sum of all the DGTO amounts being claimed by you and those companies doesn't exceed $20 million in an income year.
Example 17: calculating digital games tax offset
Company ABC is an Australian resident company with an ABN. Company ABC has obtained 2 completion certificates for the development of 2 new games from the Minister for the Arts stating that the company is eligible for the DGTO. The first certificate states the QADE amount of $2,400,000 and the second certificate states the QADE amount of $3,200,000. Both certificates relate to this income year.
The DGTO able to be claimed by Company ABC in this income year is calculated as:
($2,400,000 + $3,200,000) × 30% = $1,680,000
Company XYZ is an Australian resident company with an ABN and is a connected entity to Company ABC. There are no other companies that Company ABC or XYZ are connected with, or affiliates of, that have claimed or will claim the DGTO in this income year. Company XYZ has obtained a porting certificate from the Minister for the Arts stating the company is eligible for the DGTO. The certificate states the QADE amount of $900,000 for this income year.
The DGTO able to be claimed by Company XYZ is calculated as:
$900,000 × 30% = $270,000
In this example, item 24 would be completed by Company ABC as follows:
- Label A Current year refundable DGTO amount being claimed – $1,680,000.00.
- Label B Total amount of current year DGTO already claimed or being claimed by related companies – $270,000.00.
For Company XYZ, item 24 would be completed as follows:
- Label A Current year refundable DGTO amount being claimed – $270,000.00.
- Label B Total amount of current year DGTO already claimed or being claimed by related companies – $1,680,000.00.
The total of all the DGTO amounts for the companies that are connected with or affiliates of each other in the income year is $1,950,000 and therefore does not exceed $20 million in the income year.
End of exampleContinue to: 25 Reportable tax position
Return to: Instructions to complete the Company tax return 2024