It’s hard to make tax incentives sound “sexy”.
Trust me, I know. I’ve sat in meeting after meeting after meeting trying to get filmmakers, producers or investors excited about production tax incentives only to look up and see them staring at the ceiling while silently asking: “When are we going to get to the fun part?”
Let’s face it. Anything to do with tax = not sexy.
But what if I told you that a tax incentive could be the difference between you getting your next project funded or not?
Because tax incentives = money. Money = getting your project financed. And getting your project financed = very sexy indeed!
Tax incentives get a bit of a bad rep. People’s eyes gloss over as soon as they hear the word “tax”. People just don’t want to think about anything with that horrible word in it.
Many of us immediately get intimidated by it because it sounds complicated and finance-y. For most people, tax is never a good thing. It means paying money. It conjures up images of the IRS calling us and chasing us for money, or of having to pay an accountant to go through our bank statements.
It was only after a few months of working in LA that I realized that, actually, tax incentives weren’t that complicated after all. They don’t really have that much to do with tax – at least, not for the vast majority or filmmakers, producers and investors that take advantage of them.
But most importantly, tax incentives are a great equalizer among all film and TV projects. You could be a massive studio tentpole movie or a lower-budget indie, you could be making your first project or your fifty-first… It doesn’t matter. Provided you meet certain local requirements, pretty much any production and any filmmaker can take advantage of a tax credit or tax rebate if it is available in their shooting location.
You just have to know how to use them. You can’t just turn up and expect free money. And you can’t write to an investor saying that your film is now greenlit because a certain region just upped their tax credit.
It doesn’t quite work like that. Tax incentives are more than just a number.
A little knowledge can go a long way. Tax incentives are one of the easiest and safest ways to raise production finance in the independent market these days. The key is understanding how your project could fit into a certain program, both creatively and financially.
Don’t leave money on the table. Everyone is taking advantage of tax incentives all over the world, from TV shows to movies, from studios to low-budget indies, from Louisiana to the Czech Republic, from the UK to New Zealand and beyond. And so can you!
Get to know how tax incentives work and it could make the difference for your production! Check out our resources to learn more and let us know some of your experiences of working with tax incentives.
Happy filmmaking!
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