According to TaxWatch UK, new insights may have been gained on the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6. Rockstar North, the UK based studio behind the GTA series of games, filed its financial accounts which also reveal a massive increase in claims for government tax relief bonuses from the Video Games Tax Relief program. The report indicates that the latest claim by Rockstar North was specifically related to production costs of Grand Theft Auto 6. Since claims are made before a game launches and related specifically to money spent on production, it appears that GTA 6 will cost far more than its predecessor which came in at $137 million.

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Ultimately, the company has paid no UK Corporation Tax for four years straight even though Grand Theft Auto V has continued to pull in massive amounts of revenue. In 2019 alone, Rockstar claimed £37.6 million in tax relief from the government, which pushes its grand total to £80 million and over a quarter of all relief claimed since the program started in the United Kingdom.

When the Tax Relief program was introduced, the government estimated that the cost wouldn’t go over £35 million per year and ultimately help smaller developers flourish. However, the program cost is now up to £100 million per year and the smaller developers have not shown up as the government thought. In addition to Rockstar, only Sony, WarnerMedia, and Sega actively use the program.

Naturally, this situation has raised concerns and criticisms from outlets like TaxWatch in the past. The company has been able to avoid paying taxes in the UK, claiming relief from the government all while continuing to rake in billions of dollars in profit. The way the company has been able to maneuver around the tax credit system is by getting Grand Theft Auto 5 certified as “culturally British” from the British Film Institute (BFI). This is a point which many, like TaxWatch, disagrees with.

Regardless of the financial situation, Grand Theft Auto 6 may just be Rockstar’s most ambitious entry in the long running series yet. The most recent leak seems to indicate that the next game will feature a brother and sister as the main protagonists and is set within the 1980s and 1990s. If that’s not enough, the game will feature three cities including the return of Vice City, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Bogota, Columbia. As exciting as all of this may people, fans are cautioned to take these details with a grain of salt until Rockstar officially announces its plans for the next Grand Theft Auto.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is rumored to be in development for unspecified platforms.

MORE: What is Rockstar’s Next Game?

Source: TaxWatch UK