Video game studio: video game tax credit and cash flow in 2026

Quick answer. The video game tax credit (CIJV) covers 30% of a studio's eligible expenses, capped at 6 million EUR per company and per financial year. It targets games whose development cost reaches at least 100,000 EUR, approved by the CNC. In force until 31 December 2031, the CIJV is a major cash-flow lever, provided you anticipate the approval and the refund lag.

A video game studio burns cash for months, even years, before a single sale. Developers', artists' and game designers' salaries, subcontracting, servers: spending largely precedes revenue. In this model, the video game tax credit is not a side fiscal bonus, it is a pillar of the financing plan. Poorly anticipated, it arrives too late. Well managed, it funds a substantial share of the development.

This guide details how the CIJV works in 2026: its rate, its cap, its eligibility conditions, the approval from the National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image, and above all its concrete impact on a studio's cash flow. It is aimed at studio founders and finance teams who want to turn a fiscal scheme into a financing lever.

The CIJV is a tax credit codified in article 220 terdecies of the French Tax Code. It rewards the spending on creating a video game that meets cultural and quality criteria.

The rate of the tax credit is 30% of the eligible expenses incurred to create the game. The credit is capped at 6,000,000 EUR per company and per financial year, prorated if the year does not run twelve months. To qualify for the scheme, the game must have a development cost of at least 100,000 EUR.

The tax credit is set off against corporate tax. If it exceeds the tax due, the excess is refunded, which makes it a genuine cash injection for a loss-making studio in the development phase. This refund mechanism brings the CIJV close to the other innovation tax credits we describe in our articles on the research tax credit and the innovation tax credit.

The CIJV is not triggered by mere declaration: it requires approval from the National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC), in two stages.

Provisional approval is requested before the game is completed. It is granted after the project is reviewed by a committee of experts, which checks compliance with the cultural conditions. A key point for cash flow: expenses become eligible from the date the CNC receives the provisional approval application. Filing this application early therefore shapes the scope of expenses retained.

Final approval is requested after completion of the first commercialised version. It must be obtained no later than 36 months after the provisional approval, extended to 72 months for games whose development cost exceeds 10 million EUR. Without final approval within this period, the tax credit already obtained must be fully repaid, which is a cash-flow risk not to be overlooked.

CIJV eligibility rests on cultural criteria assessed by the CNC committee of experts.

The game must contribute to the development of French and European creation and stand out through the quality, originality or innovative character of its concept. These criteria are assessed using a points scale, which values in particular the location of the creation and the cultural dimension of the game.

Some productions are excluded: games with pornographic sequences or of very great violence do not qualify for the tax credit. There is, however, a reservation for a game aimed at an adult audience, which can remain eligible if it shows a particularly significant level of cultural contribution. Location also matters: expenses must be incurred in France or in another State of the European Union or the European Economic Area.

The CIJV base groups the expenses directly assigned to creating the game.

It includes the depreciation of fixed assets created or acquired and assigned to the game, the remuneration paid to authors for the transfer of their rights and the related social charges, the remuneration of creative staff (development and support team) and their social charges, as well as operating expenses calculated on a flat-rate basis.

Subcontracting expenses entrusted to other companies enter the base, but capped at 2,000,000 EUR per year. This limit is structuring for a studio that outsources a large part of production, for example art or music: beyond 2 million EUR of annual subcontracting, the surplus no longer generates a tax credit. Building the base requires fine cost accounting, an area where we support studios through our outsourced finance department for startups and SMEs.

Take a studio developing a game over 2 years, for a total development cost of 1,200,000 euros. Of this budget, 900,000 euros are eligible expenses (creative staff salaries, social charges, depreciation, operations), and 300,000 euros are subcontracting, under the cap of 2 million euros.

The eligible base therefore reaches 1,200,000 euros. The tax credit amounts to 30% of this base, that is 360,000 euros, well below the cap of 6 million euros. Spread over the 2 development years, this 360,000-euro tax credit is set off against corporate tax, and the excess is refunded to the studio. For a structure generating no revenue during these 2 years, this refund represents close to 30% of the production budget, funded by the State.

The lag is the cash-flow issue: the tax credit is recognised at the close of each year, then refunded after the return is filed, that is several months after the spending is committed. The amounts above illustrate the method and must be adapted to the real budget and timetable of each project.

A video game studio often crosses several innovation-support schemes, which do not combine freely.

The CIJV targets the creation of an approved game. The research tax credit (CIR) targets research and development work, for example a genuinely innovative game engine. The same expense cannot be retained twice: each cost must be allocated to one scheme. Furthermore, the young innovative company status (JEI) opens social-contribution reliefs, studied in our article on the young innovative company status and its reform from the finance act.

Combining these schemes is an optimisation exercise in its own right, which we conduct as part of our support for innovation financing. The aim is to maximise the total aid without overlap or recharacterisation.

A studio's first mistake is to think of the video game tax credit after the fact, once the game is almost finished. Since expenses only become eligible from the provisional approval application, delaying means cutting the base. We recommend filing the provisional approval application as soon as the project is sufficiently defined, before committing the bulk of spending.

The second mistake is to overlook the cash-flow lag. The tax credit funds the development, but it arrives after the spending is committed, sometimes more than a year later. A studio must therefore build a cash plan that factors in this delay, for example by mobilising bank pre-financing backed by the tax-credit receivable. The CIJV is a powerful lever provided it is managed as an expected resource, not a pleasant surprise.

A studio consulted us 6 months before the release of its first game, hoping to trigger the tax credit on its entire budget of 800,000 euros. The review of the timetable revealed that no provisional approval application had been filed: a large share of the spending, committed before any approach to the CNC, risked falling outside the base. Rebuilding the file and filing urgently saved part of the tax credit, but a fraction of the early spending, around 200,000 euros, stayed out of the base. The lesson is clear: the CIJV is prepared at the project launch, not at its delivery.