UK To Levy Game Tax?

BBC News is reporting that certain members of the British Labour Party are pushing for a law that would impose a 50p (about US80 cents) tax on sales of all video games. Why? Because the country's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has stated that he would like half of all UK citizens between the ages of 18 and 30 to participate in higher learning by the year 2007. Bigger grants would be required for a venture of this caliber, and as such, certain Labour Party representatives have pointed at the UK's video-game industry as a possible source of that needed income.

"These are not taxed at the moment, and they are therefore a reasonable target to consider," said Mr. Marsden, one of the Labour Party's representatives, in the BBC article.

Video games account for over US$800 million in sales in the UK, and this proposed tax (about 1 percent of each unit's total cost) would yield around $8 million annually. As of now, there's no word on whether or not the British government plans on passing this law.