Film Tax Credits & Film Tax Incentives
Film tax credits and film tax incentives, also knowns as Production Incentives, are a key part of any film budget and film finance plan. Filmmakers must take these programs into consideration when considering how they will finance their movie, tv series, documentary or independent film and augment their film budget with supportive funding.
The Expansion of Film Tax Credits Programs
Film tax credits programs underwent a gradual and then increasing expansion over the last several decades. From early beginnings to current days the film tax incentive offered for filmmaking in various jurisdictions has grown from simple support of film production to a bedrock principle in designing the film budget and television programming production budget.
Film Finance & Production Incentives Programs
Currently film tax incentives have become fundamental to the entertainment industry and a critical element of film budgeting by producer, line producers and company executives. As virtually all U.S. States and worldwide regions now provide options for film production companies, the Major Hollywood Studios and indie filmmakers. Companies rely on these programs to supplement the funding for their productions and they have become indispensable to the artistic content creation community as well as the commercial production industries.
Here is a link to a list of current film tax credit and production incentives as presented by Entertainment Partners.
United States Incentives – History
Incentives in the early days consisted of small Film Offices in a select few U.S. States offering assistance in producing in their areas. This included flights and hotel rooms for producers and directors to travel for location scouting to the capital city. This travel helped the filmmakers get a hands-on look at the location to determine if it suited the setting of the movie or tv show. They did not offer direct film budget support for their movie production however their local personnel and vendor knowledge and support was extremely helpful to filmmakers.
Only a few places offered this and finding out about these programs was the task of producers using their knowledge and contacts to discover these options as they were not widely publicized. Minneapolis, Minnesota comes to mind which travelled our team in the early days of such offerings.
Often this became a negotiation with film offices to determine what the film office would provide for a production in development or preparation. Shortly thereafter it started to become more common for this practice to occur. States would likewise offer up their employees in the film departments and start-up film offices to take the production team around town. Soon they began developing resources for Location Scouts to be engaged to shuttle the directors to locations of interest to showcase their city as a good shooting locale.
European Film Tax Credits and Co-Productions
Meanwhile in Europe, it had become somewhat commonplace for countries to offer Co-Production Treaties with likeminded countries. These agreements allowed for efficiencies in film & television production. As government backed funding was a common source of financing of European content this allowed cooperation, circumventing certain amounts of “red-tape” to allow more fluid production processes.
Co-production programs bring together government subsidies and commercial distribution partners to fund entertainment, arts and media content for a region. This is a common source of backing in the absence of deep pocketed U.S. style production entities, studios and production companies. This form of film financing is well engrained and familiar to European, Commonwealth and various international regions.
The Current State of Film Tax Credits and Production Incentives
Fast forward to more recent times. Film tax credits and production incentives continued to expand and grow both in the United States and internationally.
State subsidies, as they are sometimes referred to, have grown to enhance the film production budget and television series budgets as a basic element. These funds not only support the filmmaking community and expand production opportunities for local crew members, students and vendors, they have become a key sales tool for States tourism industries.
Every country, state and most cities now offer production incentives of some level. The U.S. States entered a competitive stance working to lure production to their economies, offering increasing percentages of the film budget expenditure for film production companies to shoot locally.
Countries around the world likewise grew their programs to compete in the market for production dollars to be spent in their neighborhoods. Inward investment became a common area to increase local support for their communities. It has become a winning solution for both local areas and producers in highly competitive economies and the world of film and tv financing.
Today’s Highly Competitive Film Tax Credit & Production Incentive Programs
Every jurisdiction now offers highly competitive programs for bring inward investment to their economy. From New York’s lucrative incentives, Georgia, Louisiana and New Mexico have become strongholds of production due to their support.
The United Kingdom is one of the most successful film tax credit programs in history and the success of its thriving industry is a testament to the value of being in the forefront of welcoming the entertainment industry to its shores.
Hollywood in California took notice of the runaway production flight from its historical beachhead. The State redoubled its efforts and expanded its film tax credits program to over $300 million to bring back production. It offered increasing incentives to studio movie productions to support the film budget expense, indie films and a special effort for returning tv series, an extremely lucrative spend for the local economy.
More information will be provide in Film Tax Credits and Production Incentives – Part 2.
FilmBudget.com International creates professional film budget, tv series budgets, film finance plans and producer consulting packages for major Hollywood Studios, production companies and indie filmmakers requiring professional film budgeting services.
