VGTC: how a chartered accountant helps a video game studio

Quick answer. A specialised video game chartered accountant secures the VGTC tax credit (30% of eligible spending, capped at EUR 6m per company and per financial year), prepares the CNC approval, documents the base of development costs and arbitrates with the R&D tax credit. The scheme (French Tax Code art. 220 terdecies) applies to spending committed until 31 December 2031.

In a video game studio, the value a chartered accountant adds is not in day-to-day bookkeeping. It is in the financing that decides, in practice, whether the title ships. Between the video game tax credit, the approval from the French National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC), the video game support fund and the R&D tax credit, every eligible euro left untraced is lost aid, and every forgotten threshold can turn a credit already collected into a debt to repay. Here is how we structure these files.

The video game tax credit (French Tax Code art. 220 terdecies) covers 30% of eligible creation and development spending, capped at 6 million euros per company and per financial year. Two conditions structure eligibility: a minimum development cost of 100,000 euros and an approval issued by the CNC. The scheme applies to spending committed until 31 December 2031.

One parameter often poorly handled by studios should be set out from the budget stage: subcontracting entrusted to European companies is capped at 2 million euros per financial year within the base. When part of production goes to providers (art, audio, porting), this cap changes the real value of the aid. It is exactly the kind of variable to anticipate in the financing plan, not to discover when filing.

This table looks simple, and that is precisely the trap: the figures are public, but the difficulty lies in applying them to your file, expense by expense, item by item. A studio that mixes non-eligible charges into its base does not lose 5% of its aid; it exposes itself to a broader challenge during an audit.

The benefit of the VGTC requires an approval from the CNC, based on a cultural test: quality, originality or innovative character of the project, level of artistic spending assessed against a scale, and specific rules for adult games featuring violence. The mechanism runs in two stages:

1. A provisional approval, requested before the game is completed: the benefit of the tax credit runs from the date of the request.
2. A final approval, obtained after commercialisation of the title.

The most costly operational trap concerns the timeline. The final approval must be obtained within 36 months of the provisional approval, failing which the tax credit already received must be repaid. In other words, a studio that slips on its release schedule can see collected aid turn back into a debt. Our role here is to keep the tax timeline in step with the production timeline, and to flag the moment the two start to diverge.

Hayot Expertise tip. File the provisional approval request as early as possible, before the first heavy spending. The benefit runs from the date of the request, so every month gained upstream secures the base, and every month gained downstream eases the pressure of the 36-month rule.

The CNC's video game support fund (FAJV) opens selective subsidies across three phases: writing, pre-production and production. Support for intellectual property creation is conditional on the studio retaining the rights, a sensitive point as soon as a publisher joins the cap table. Two caps frame the whole:

• FAJV production support is capped at 50% of production spending.
• Total public aid cannot exceed 50% of the final production cost.

In practice, stacking VGTC, FAJV and regional aid without modelling this overall cap exposes the studio to an overpayment, and therefore a repayment. We rebuild what the profession calls a consolidated financing plan, line by line, to check that the sum of aid stays within the authorised envelope before any commitment. This modelling is part of the steering work we run for young tech companies, described on our outsourced CFO for startups and SMEs page.

The VGTC does not combine with the R&D tax credit (art. 244 quater B) on the same spending. A studio building a proprietary engine or genuinely new technical components may fall under both logics. It must then arbitrate, expense by expense, never counting the same cost twice.

This trade-off is not a simple calculation: it is a structuring decision. The two schemes do not share the same scope, timing or burden of justification. We cover it in detail in our dedicated article, VGTC or CIR: which credit for a game studio, and we handle it as part of our innovation financing support (R&D credit, CII, young innovative company status).

Not every studio presents the same configuration. A few situations significantly change how the file reads:

• Studio backed by a publisher: if the publisher requires the assignment of intellectual property rights, access to FAJV support for IP creation, which is conditional on retaining the rights, may fall away. Drafting the publishing contract becomes a tax issue as much as a legal one.
• Heavily outsourced production: a studio that subcontracts art and audio massively to European providers quickly reaches the EUR 2m EU subcontracting cap within the base. Beyond it, the spending is still real but no longer generates a tax credit.
• Adult game featuring violence: specific rules apply to the cultural test. The approval file must be prepared accordingly, with no last-minute surprise.
• First title below the 100,000 euro development cost: under this threshold, no VGTC. The budget trajectory must be designed accordingly from the pre-production phase.

In the studio files we support, the most frequent sticking point is not day-to-day bookkeeping: it is the traceability of the base. Who worked on what, on which eligible item, and with what supporting documents? On a recent engagement, a studio developing its first PC title, with a production budget of around 1.2 million euros, had entrusted audio and part of the art to European providers. Three points decided the financing: crossing the 100,000 euro development-cost threshold (met), watching the 2 million euro EU subcontracting cap (not reached, so a full base) and timing the provisional approval request before the first heavy spending. The real risk in this profile was not the rate, known in advance: it was the schedule slip that could push the final approval beyond the 36 months.

Our conviction, after several files of this kind: analytical tracking by project set up from the first euro is far better than a painful reconstruction at year-end. Studios that wait for the closing to deal with their eligible base lose both time and, often, part of the aid. Rates and caps are public; the added value lies in the rigour of the file and in keeping the dual tax-and-production timeline.

• Double counting VGTC / R&D credit, which weakens the whole file in an audit: a single charge can feed only one scheme.
• The overall 50% public-aid cap, quickly crossed when stacking VGTC, FAJV and regional aid without a consolidated plan.
• The 36-month deadline for the final approval, to be treated as a management constraint, not an administrative formality.
• Retaining IP rights when a publisher joins the capital or signs the publishing contract.
• The 100,000 euro threshold, to be secured from the initial budget rather than hoped for at year-end.

• Check the development-cost threshold (100,000 euros) from the initial budget.
• Set up analytical tracking by project to isolate the eligible base.
• File the provisional approval request with the CNC as early as possible.
• Watch the EU subcontracting cap (EUR 2m) within the VGTC base.
• Model the overall 50% public-aid cap before stacking VGTC, FAJV and regional aid.
• Settle the VGTC / R&D credit trade-off expense by expense, with no double counting.
• Secure the final-approval timeline within the 36 months.

This article informs about a framework in force as of 1 January 2026; a decision specific to your project requires reviewing your situation, your documents and the applicable law. To go further, our page dedicated to accounting support for video game studios details our approach to financing, approval and steering, and our chartered accountancy firm in Paris 8 remains available to set the financing strategy best suited to your current title.