California’s film and TV tax incentive program is potentially looking at a major overhaul.
Two bills were introduced on Wednesday whose details have not yet been ironed out but are set to “expand the kinds of productions” that will qualify for California’s film and television tax credit program.
SB 630 and AB 1138 “will modernize the program components to make sure that California’s program is competitive and helps California retain and bring back high-quality jobs that are largely union and to give a lifeline and grow industry that is serving the small businesses,” said Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, who co-introduced the bills alongside Senator Ben Allen and Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, all Democrats.
According to Chavez Zbur, the bills will go “hand in hand” and will include change that make California is “fully and truly competitive” with other states and countries. The legislation is focused on jobs above all, he added: “We know that we must modernize these programs.”
The announcement follows Gov. Gavin Newsom last year unveiling plans to more than double California’s current cap for a program that provides tax relief to the entertainment industry in an aggressive bid to revitalize production across the state after it was decimated by the strikes and curb the yearslong flight of films and television series away from the region.
The charge to improve the program became more urgent after Los Angeles’ wildfires, which ushered in a cloud of uncertainty to a gloomy production landscape that may further chip away at Los Angeles’ share of filming. Among the concerns: the possibility that the blazes accelerate the flight of the entertainment industry’s workforce away from California.
The latest report from local film office FilmLA showed that production in L.A. is bouncing back. The three-month period from October to December saw gains across most types of filming except reality TV, which logged its ninth consecutive quarterly decline. Overall last year, filming in the region tallied just 23,480 shoot days — the second lowest figure observed by FilmLA outside of 2020 when filming was halted amid the pandemic.
If passed, California’s subsidy would be the most generous offered by any state except Georgia, which doesn’t have a ceiling on the amount it gives to productions per year. The expansion would shower as much as $3.75 billion in tax credits to the industry over five years starting in 2025.
Still, whether productions opt to shoot in California at historically comparable levels will depend on changes to the program outside of the increase to its cap. This includes broadening the types of expenditures and categories of production that qualify for tax credits to upping the maximum amount a single title can receive in subsidies.
If passed, California’s subsidy would be the most generous offered by any state except Georgia, which doesn’t have a ceiling on the amount it gives to productions per year. The expansion would shower as much as $3.75 billion in tax credits to the industry over five years starting in 2025.
More to come.
