A bipartisan group of lawmakers officially introduced legislation on Thursday to create a 20% federal film and TV incentive, a first-of-its-kind tax credit designed to lure production back to the United States.
The legislation, the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act, also would create additional incentive “uplifts” of 5% for productions in opportunity zones or federally declared rural disaster areas. Other sweeteners are being proposed for productions across 10 or more states, as well as for producers of independent productions and for those who increase their domestic production “relative to a historical foreign base amount.”
Read the proposed federal film and TV incentive bill.
Even though industry boosters have called for such an incentive for years, the prospects for the proposal gained new momentum late last month when President Donald Trump endorsed such legislation.
The co-sponsors of the incentive include Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in the Senate and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Rep. Brian Jack (R-GA), Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX) and Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) in the House. Other backers include Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN), Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH) and Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY).
The productions eligible for the credit include film and TV productions where the total cost exceeds $1 million and where 75% of the production is in the United States. There also are provisions for post-production and visual effects. Excluded are news, live sports, talk shows, daytime dramas, social media content, advertising and corporate videos.
The credits also can be transferred to another taxpayer, a key point for producers and studios. The authors also say that the credits can supplement state incentives, something that Schiff has said will help U.S. incentives compete with those in other countries.
There are still challenges ahead, even with the backing of the president and members of both parties. The House is already in recess through the midterms, and the Senate is about to adjourn soon. The hope now is to attempt to pass legislation during the lame duck session at the end of the year, perhaps by attaching it to a major funding bill, Schiff said in a call with reporters.
“So much of the film industry, in particular, have moved overseas because the United States has simply not been willing or able to match the tax incentives,” Schiff said. “States have tried, and California has certainly tried, but can’t on its own make up for the very substantial incentives overseas.”
More to come.
Leave a Reply