In the 2024 budget, adopted without a vote after the use of 49.3 by the government, there is indeed a measure that the executive hesitated to take up: lowering the VAT rate on tickets for esports events, currently 20%, in order to align it with that of sporting and cultural events (5.5%).
The government finally resumed in the 2024 budget, an amendment adopted earlier by deputies in committee at the National Assembly, to support the esports ecosystem. Measure that this ecosystem in full structuring and booming, required. Decryption with Laure Valée, esports consultant for franceinfo.
franceinfo: What does this tax measure provide for esports in the next budget?
Laure Valée: This is a measure on VAT. The amendment included plans to align taxation on ticketing for esports events with those for sporting and cultural events.
Does this mean that this is not the case today?
It may seem surprising, but yes. VAT on tickets for esports events is 20%, while it is only 5.5% on concert or match tickets, such as those for the Rugby World Cup for example. . This is all the more surprising since esports is precisely at the crossroads between sporting practice and cultural practice.
Denis Masséglia, Renaissance MP, has been defending this amendment for four years: “A few years ago, when I pushed this amendment, I did not succeed, so the teaching that I have been able to do for many years is bearing fruit. The object, this is not so much about lowering VAT, it’s about having consistency, there is no reason for esports to have a different VAT rate.”
To see the measure included in the 2024 budget, Denis Masséglia had to convince parliamentarians and the government. The organization of several major international tournaments in several cities in France in recent months has helped: “The fact of organizing events which are seen on a national scale, but also on a territorial scale, allows them to sometimes discover something that they do not know. And therefore, as they understand it, see it, they can be more favorable in the exchanges that I can have with them, in the National Assembly”.
franceinfo: the sector demanded this reduced rate VAT. What will this change?
Laure Valée: There is a big concern for profitability, always, still, in esports. And the events serve as showcases for teams, organizers and sponsors. Aligning VAT with sporting and cultural events in the future will make it possible to be more profitable in the organization of these large-scale events.