The Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development, a division of Empire State Development, has announced that in less than two months since Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation to expand the postproduction tax credit, 10 production companies have agreed to do their post work in New York, generating a projected $7.7 million in direct economic spending activity.
Back on July 24, Gov. Cuomo signed the bill that triples New York State’s postproduction tax credit from 10 to 30 percent (35 percent for upstate New York). The Empire State Film Post Production Credit is a fully refundable 30 percent tax credit on qualified post costs paid in the production of a film at a qualified post facility in New York State. To be eligible, at least 75 percent of the total post expenditures must be incurred in New York. The initiative covers such projects as theatrical feature films, episodic television series, TV pilots and presentations, telefilms and television miniseries. (Commercials, documentaries, sport shows or events, daytime soap operas, news or current affairs programs, reality programs and talk/interview shows are among the projects that do not qualify for the incentive.)
Qualifying post costs include “traditional, emerging and new workflow techniques used in postproduction for picture, sound and music editorial, rerecording and mixing, visual effects, graphic design, original scoring, animation, and musical composition; but shall not include the editing of previously produced content for a qualified film.”
Projects do not have to be shot in New York State in order to take advantage of the post tax credit. The incentive is designed to help get producers to bring their postproduction business to the State of New York no matter where production took place. Productions are required to submit the Post Production Tax Credit application before the last day of principal photography.
The postproduction incentive program is believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S. The program is completely separate from the New York State Film Production tax credit initiative, which benefits qualifying projects shot in the state, offering an aggregate credit of 30 percent covering production and post. Producers filing for this incentive are not able to also apply for the stand-alone postproduction tax credit program.
Record performance
The results in less than two months of the increased post tax credit can be put in better perspective when compared to the activity from November 2010 to June 2012 when the post incentive credit was just 10 percent and filming had to be done in New York. During that stretch, only 18 applications were received with a projected spend of just over $20 million.
“Under the leadership of Governor Cuomo, the state’s television and film incentives program is attracting new business that is resulting in more investment in New York and more jobs for New Yorkers,” said Kenneth Adams, Empire State Development president, CEO and commissioner. “Bringing in ten new projects in less than two months shows that the state’s new postproduction tax credit program is clearly working to grow New York’s film and television industry.”
Meanwhile the anchor state tax credit program for those projects shot in New York continues to generate business. Many major film and television productions have cited the state’s tax credit program as a leading factor in the decision to produce film and television projects in New York. New York State’s film tax credit program began in 2004. The program is worth $420 million each year including $7 million for postproduction credits. Since the program began, there have been 744 applications for the tax credit program, which when all completed will spend an estimated $11.6 billion in New York. Of the 744 projects, 488 projects have been completed and received the credit. The total credit issued to date has been $1.06 billion for completed projects, which generated economic spending activity of $7.62 billion. In 2011, New York State received 135 applications that are projected to spend $1.5 billion. In 2012 to date, New York has received 107 applications that are projected to spend $1.77 billion.
Since 2004, the tax credit program is responsible for more than 522,000 hires by the film and television industry in New York State.
