Film Industry Incentives

There are three tax offsets available for certain Australian production expenditure incurred by a production company in making a film, where a minimum level of expenditure has been incurred.

A company can claim one of these three offsets:

• The producer tax offset – A refundable tax offset that is 40% of the company’s total Qualifying Australian Production Expenditure (QAPE) on a feature film, or 20% on a film that is not a feature film.
• The location tax offset – Refundable tax offset that is 16.5% of the company’s total QAPE on the film.
• The PDV tax offset – Refundable tax offset that is 30% of the company’s total QAPE on the film that relates to post, digital and visual effects production for the film.

To claim the producer tax offset Screen Australia must have issued the company a final certificate for the film.

Screen Australia will only issue a final certificate to the company where Screen Australia is satisfied:

• The film is completed.
• The film has significant Australian content.
• The film is of an eligible format and genre.
• The applicant company has carried out all the activities for the making of the film.
• The company’s total QAPE on the film meets or exceeds relevant thresholds.

Further details are available at Screen Australia.