Lights, Camera, Action and Tax Cut! Spotlight on California’s Film Tax Credit Program

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Written by Peter J. Scalise | Posted in Specialty Tax Incentives • State And Local Tax (SALT)

In a highly strategic effort to mitigate the exodus of filming to other states throughout the United States as well as other countries, California lawmakers enacted an increase to its Film Tax Credit Program on September 18th to more than triple the annual credits available from $100 million to $330 million, and to extend the program through the year 2020.

The new California law significantly enhances the California Film Tax Credit Program which will now allocate the available annual pool of credits 5% to independent films; 35% to feature films from major players; 20% to relocating television series; and 40% to new television series, pilots, movies-of-the-week and mini-series.

California’s enhanced Film Tax Credit Program represents a true paradigm shift within multi-state movie production tax incentive programs nationwide and film producers will certainly be rejoicing by saying “Lights, Camera, Action and Tax Cut!”

For legislative updates from Capitol Hill and complete coverage of the latest statutory, administrative, and judicial interpretations please connect with Peter J. Scalise on TaxConnections.

Peter J. Scalise

Peter J. Scalise serves as the Federal Tax Credits & Incentives Practice Leader for Prager Metis CPAs, LLC a member of The Prager Metis International Group. Peter is a highly distinguished BIG 4 Alumni Tax Practice Leader and has approximately twenty years of progressive public accounting experience developing, managing and leading multi-million dollar tax advisory practices on both a regional and national level.

Peter is a highly acclaimed thought leader in the fields of accounting and taxation with deep subject matter expertise in connection to designing, implementing and defending sustainable methodologies for specialty tax incentives including, but not limited to, research tax incentives; orphan drug credits; therapeutic discovery credits; accounting methods and periods; energy tax incentives in connection to green building envelope efficiency and benchmarking, solar energy, bio energies, fuel cells, wind turbines, micro turbines, and geothermal systems; and comprehensive fixed asset analysis incorporating principles of construction tax planning, cost segregation analysis and the final treasury regulations governing tangible property.

Peter is a renowned keynote speaker and an extensively published author on specialty tax incentives, tax controversy matters, and legislative updates from Capitol Hill for NAREIT, AGRION, USGBC, AICPA, ASTP, NATP, ABA, AIA, and TEI. Peter serves as a member of the Tax Faculty for CPAacademy, iShade and TaxConnections University (“TCU”). Peter serves on both the Board of Directors and Board of Editors for The American Society of Tax Professionals (“ASTP”) and is the Founding President and Chairman of The Northeastern Region Tax Roundtable.