Rockstar, the developers behind the popular video game series, Grand Theft Auto, is in deep problems right now after recent reports claiming the company has failed to pay taxes for 10-years, according to Tax Watch UK.
Apparently, the studio paid zero corporation tax between 2009 and 2018, this despite the current lifetime sale of Grand Theft Auto V topping $6 billion worldwide. It gets even interesting when the report claims that Rockstar North claimed $70 million in tax credits from Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs for over 10-years.
According to the thinktank: "This report also raises questions as to whether an appropriate amount of profit has been allocated to the UK companies involved in the game's development. Seven active companies based in the UK using the Take-Two and Rockstar names declared a total profit before tax of £47.3m in the UK between 2013 and 2018. However, over the same period we estimated the operating profit of games published by Rockstar to be in the region of $5 billion."
If this accusation holds, then Rockstar could be made to pay millions in owed back tax to the United Kingdom. Then again, things could even take a more terrible turn should this issue be brought before the courts.
Grand Theft Auto V is widely believed to be the most successful in the series after 110 million copies of the game were sold to gamers since 2013.