Relates to eligibility for the empire state film post production credit

BILL NUMBER:S5314

Title of bill

An act to amend the tax law, in relation to the empire state film production credit

Purpose

This legislation represents a technical correction to the 2010 Film and Television Post Production Tax Credit and further removes barriers to eligibility into the program.

The Post Production Film and Television Tax Credit has resulted in a rethinking by production companies regarding where to locate a production's post work. This understanding is based on numerous conversations between New York based Post Production facilities and the film and television production decision makers. What has been learned is that while there exists great interest in posting in New York, given its wealth of talent, landmarks and other resources, the 10% credit is not a high enough rebate for the industry to shift a significant amount of work to New York. New York's post production tax credit program is simply not maximizing its potential to entice post production projects.

Summary of provisions

This legislation further recognizes that Film and Television post production work is comprised of three distinct subsets; "Music", "Visual Effects" and "Editorial". In regards to music, there is only one fully functioning scoring stage in New York State. Due to this limited local resource, our State does not possess the infrastructure to complete every score of every movie that might otherwise come to New York for post production services. Similarly, while the visual effects industry is growing in New York, it does not currently have the labor force necessary to meet the VFX shot demands of every film that desires to post in NY. These market realities are addressed in this amendment by removing the requirement to meet a 75% threshold for all of post production's aspects, thereby removing a barrier to eligibility for those productions that seek to bring post production work to New York (as the threshold on the post spend in its entirety is nearly impossible to reach given the likelihood that all or portions of the music and/or VFX work will need to be created outside of the state). To structure the program to require 75% of anyone of the subsets within the definition of "post production" be met will enable the infrastructures of each industry sector to grow, provide incentive for the producers to remain in New York for post production and therefore result in maximizing job creation.

Fiscal implications

To be determined.

Effective date

Immediately.