PRODUCTION INCENTIVES

• Tools for 2010
• Updates by Jurisdiction
• In the News
• What's New at EP?
• Maximize Your Incentives with EP
• Recent Events

*NEW* The Essential Guide to U.S. & International Production Incentives, 2010, 2nd Edition, edited by Joseph Chianese, Marco Cordova, and Barbara Rosenfeld, is now available. Contact our group to order your copy at no charge.

Monthly Production Incentives Email Updates Archive of previous newsletters is available. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Follow the EP Production Incentives Group on Twitter for instant updates on incentives and events at www.twitter.com/filmincentives.

Recent Updates, as of June 28, 2010, have been posted to the website.

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U.S. Updates
For more information on incentives in each state, visit the U.S. Overview on our website and click on the state of interest.

U.S. STATE and LOCAL
For a discussion of the pros and cons of film incentives, see Governing article.

ARIZONA
Politicians from both parties support resurrection of a tax incentive bill that made it through the Senate and the House Commerce Committee before dying on the sessions’ last night (see Arizona Republic article).

FLORIDA
Governor Crist signed SB 1752 establishing the 5-year $242 million transferable tax credit program summarized in last month’s newsletter. Note that the Department of Revenue “buy-back” of credits subject to relinquishment on July 1, 2011, has not yet received legislative appropriation. The Florida film offices began accepting applications on June 9 for the new tax credit, and applications are being accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. (See Florida jurisdiction page for more information.)

MICHIGAN
Janet Lockwood is retiring at the end of June. The Film Office has announced that effective immediately, applications missing the required documentation will be returned to the applicant. (See Michigan Messenger article.)

The State of Michigan Department of Treasury issues new guidance regarding transactions qualifying as a "direct production expenditure." The State of Michigan provides specific examples relating to transactions with vendors that may and may not qualify for the film tax credit.

NEW JERSEY
Senator Paul Sarlo, chairman of the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, called a public hearing to discuss Governor Christie’s proposed suspension of the production tax credit on July 1, 2010. (See The Oakland Journal article.)

NEW MEXICO
Governor Richardson announced more funds to promote the film industry’s growth. He will complete his last term in office at the end of the year and urged the industry to begin work on a strategy to support continuation of the incentive program. (See New Mexico Business Weekly article.)

NEW YORK
The Assembly and Senate have come to a two-way agreement on a revenue plan that would help close the state's $9.2 billion budget gap. Among several major provisions, the legislation provides an additional $420 million annually over tax years 2010 through 2014 for the Empire State film production credit. Seven million of the annual allocation would be available for a separate post-production tax credit. (See the Assembly Speaker News Release.)

NEW YORK - New York
Senior officials summoned representatives from the studios, advertising and labor unions to tell them about the proposed $300 fee for films, commercials, music videos and television series. Permits have been free since the city established a film office in 1966. The city will have a comment period on the fee proposal, and then schedule a public hearing. (See AP article at Boston.com.)

NORTH CAROLINA
The House passed HB 1973, which would make the credit 25%, eliminate the cap on compensation, increase the cap on feature films to $20 million, expand the definition of qualifying expenses, and add an interactive digital media credit (see News & Record article).

SOUTH CAROLINA
Both the House and the Senate overrode the Governor’s veto of the film rebate program (see Veto 64 references).

International Updates

For more information on incentives around the world, visit the International Overview page on our website and click on the region or country of interest.

AUSTRALIA - New South Wales
New funding of A$25,000,000 was announced on June 2, 2010. Of this amount, A$17,000,000 is allocated to large-scale offshore productions. (See the Hollywood Reporter article.)

CZECH REPUBLIC
The European Commission approved the Czech Film Industry Support Programme, effective June 21, 2010. The new incentive is a 20% rebate of local production costs paid to Czech companies or individuals registered to pay income tax in the Czech Republic. There is also a 10% rebate on payments to individuals not registered to pay income tax but pay withholding tax in the Czech Republic.

POLAND
The national filmmakers association in Poland plans to launch a campaign in support of a local film incentive later this year (see Variety article).

THAILAND
Recent political events in Thailand negatively impacted film production. To regain the trust of foreign producers and to encourage them to film locally, the government is now discussing tax exemptions for foreign productions. (See Thailand Business News article.)

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Joseph Chianese was recently quoted in the Variety article entitled “PGA conference is all about the money.”

Marco Cordova was quoted in the Variety article entitled “New Mexico: Billions Served.”

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EP and EPPS Expansion in Connecticut
We now have an account representative, Scott Brant, to work closely with all our Connecticut clients from our new office in Stamford, CT. Please email Scott for additional information regarding our Connecticut services or to schedule a meeting.

Website and Comparison Tool
Visit www.epincentivesolutions.com for the most up-to-date incentives information, including a new extensive glossary covering types of incentives, eligibility criteria, benefit limits, and other key issues to consider. Be sure to check out the Comparison Tool that enables you to compare incentives in up to three different jurisdictions.

EPPS Participating Vendor List
A participating vendor list is now available for EPPS Purchasing, Inc., which provides production equipment and supplies, at competitive rates, in certain states to help maximize your production incentives. Please contact Marco Cordova at 818.955.6278 regarding our EPPS Purchasing, Inc., services.

Want to be a participating EPPS Purchasing, Inc., vendor? Please contact Mary Ann McBride at 412.956.7325 for more information.

EP Incentive Solutions
Please contact EP's production incentives specialists by email or by phone at 818.955.6216 if you have any questions regarding your next production. We can help you budget your next production and find the most beneficial incentives at no charge. We also provide fee-based services for production incentives administration, finance facilitation, corporate-structure planning, and agreed-upon consulting projects. Visit our Services section for more information and contact information for our EP Incentive Solutions specialists.

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Entertainment Partners has purchased Workers' Compensation policies from local brokers throughout the United States to help maximize your production incentives! Listed below are those production incentives states where EP currently has a local policy.

Florida
Hawaii
Illinois
Louisiana
Mississippi
New Jersey
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
Texas

More policies to be announced soon!

Entertainment Partners has an office in each of the following states to help maximize your production incentives (more to open soon!):

California
Connecticut *
Florida
Georgia **
Louisiana ***
Michigan ****
New Mexico *****
New York
Pennsylvania ******
Utah


* EP and EPPS Purchasing, Inc., have a full-time Account Representative in Connecticut to help maximize your production incentives benefits. Please contact Scott Brant at 203.291.9399 for more information regarding our services in Connecticut.

** EP and EPPS Purchasing, Inc., have a full-time Account Representative in Georgia to help maximize your production incentives benefits. Please contact Karen Sortor at 678.690.8469 for more information regarding our services in Georgia.

*** EP and EPPS Purchasing, Inc. have full-time employees working in our Jefferson Parish office to help maximize your production incentives. Please contact Ryan Broussard at 504.296.2502 for more information regarding our services in Louisiana.

**** EP and EPPS Purchasing, Inc. have a full-time Account Representative in Detroit to help maximize your production incentives. Please contact Blane Hailemichael at 313.573.0018 for more information regarding our services in Michigan.

***** EP and EPPS Purchasing, Inc., have an office at Albuquerque Studios. EP provides super loan-out services in New Mexico to help maximize your production incentives. For more information contact the EP Production Incentives Group.

****** EP and EPPS Purchasing, Inc., have a full-time Account Representative in Pennsylvania to help maximize your production incentive benefits. Please contact Mary Ann McBride at 412.956.7325 for more information regarding our services in Pennsylvania.

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411 Publishing Webinar Series
"Spotlight on International Incentives"
June 22, 2010
This was the sixth in a series of webinars moderated by Joe Chianese, presented by 411 Publishing and Variety.com in partnership with the Producers Guild of America. This webinar, entitled "Spotlight on International Incentives" focused on production tax incentives in Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, and the United Kingdom. Click here to register for and view the archived presentation.

Please visit the Happenings section of our website for information on upcoming events as it becomes available.

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