During a formal ceremony this morning at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed a bill into law that more than triples funding for the state’s Film & TV Tax Credit to $330 million a year for five years beginning with fiscal year 2015-’16. The current film tax credit allows the California Film Commission to allocate up to $100 million of income tax credits a year to limited kinds of productions made in California. A lottery is used to award the credit. The new tax credit program eliminates the lottery system and applicants will instead be ranked according to the net number of new jobs created and overall positive economic impact for the entire state.
The new tax credit pool funds will be divided among different categories of production with the breakdown being: 40 percent for pilots, miniseries, telefilms, and new and recurring television series; 20 percent for relocating TV series; 35 percent for theatrical features; and five percent for indie films. Big budget features and new one-hour dramatic series will qualify for the expanded California incentives program for the first time. For example on the theatrical film front, whereas the incentives presently apply to only those features with a budget of $75 million or less, that cap will be eliminated under the new program. Feature films of any size budget will become eligible and may qualify for up to the first $100 million of qualified expenditures for the tax credit.
The tax credit generally ranges from 20 to 25 percent of qualifying expenditures. In some instances, contributing to the maximum 25 percent tax credit is an additional five percent “uplift credit” which can be attained under certain conditions such as: out-of-zone lensing (located outside the so-called core 30-mile studio zone, applicable only to qualified projects eligible for the base 20 percent credit); and certain visual effects projects. For the latter, VFX work must represent at least 75 percent of the VFX budget or a minimum of $10 million in qualified VFX expenditures incurred in California.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti predicted that once it takes hold, the expanded California Film & TV Tax Credit would translate to 10,000 film industry-related jobs returning to the L.A. region.
The California Film Commission is currently developing regulations, program guidelines and other procedures to administer the newly expanded tax credit program.
