Bailout bill passes, at least there’s an earmark for film production
By S Simmons. Filed in Blogs and links, filmmaking, from the net |
Well it looks like the $700 billion + bailout bill has passed both the House and the Senate. The Senate loaded it down with a lot more than just the $700 billion for Wall Street and added some $100 billion + for a bunch of earmarks. One of those earmarks includes tax breaks for film production. This is from cnn.com:
I guess that’s good that if all this pork $$$ will be spent at least our industry might see some of that. I dug into the actual 400+ page bill and found the actual text. Good luck understanding it …. I guess it’s for the accountants to make sense of:
•HR 1424 EAS
SEC. 502. PROVISIONS RELATED TO FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS.
(a) EXTENSIONOFEXPENSINGRULESFORQUALIFIED FILMANDTELEVISIONPRODUCTIONS.—Section 181(f) (re-lating to termination) is amended by striking ‘‘December 31, 2008’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2009’’.
292 •HR 1424 EAS
(b) MODIFICATIONOFLIMITATIONONEXPENSING.— Subparagraph (A) of section 181(a)(2) is amended to read
as follows: ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (1) shall not apply to so much of the aggregate cost of any qualified film or television production as exceeds $15,000,000.’’. (c) MODIFICATIONS TO DEDUCTION FOR DOMESTIC ACTIVITIES.— (1) DETERMINATION OF W–2 WAGES.—Paragraph (2) of section 199(b) is amended by adding at
the end the following new subparagraph: ‘‘(D) SPECIAL RULE FOR QUALIFIED FILM.—In the case of a qualified film, such term shall include compensation for services performed in the United States by actors, production personnel, directors, and producers.’’. (2) DEFINITION OF QUALIFIED FILM.—Paragraph (6) of section 199(c) is amended by adding at the end the following: ‘‘A qualified film shall include any copyrights, trademarks, or other intangibles with respect to such film. The methods and means of distributing a qualified film shall not affect the availability of the deduction under this section.’’.
293 •HR 1424 EAS
(3) PARTNERSHIPS.—Subparagraph (A) of section 199(d)(1) is amended by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of clause (ii), by striking the period at the end of clause (iii) and inserting ‘‘, and’’, and by adding at the end the following new clause: ‘‘(iv) in the case of each partner of a partnership, or shareholder of an S corporation, who owns (directly or indirectly) at least 20 percent of the capital interests in such partnership or of the stock of such S corporation— ‘‘(I) such partner or shareholder shall be treated as having engaged directly in any film produced by such partnership or S corporation, and ‘‘(II) such partnership or S corporation shall be treated as having engaged directly in any film produced by such partner or shareholder.’’.
(d) CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 181(d)(3)(A) is amended by striking ‘‘actors’’ and all that follows and inserting ‘‘actors, production personnel, directors, and producers.’’.
(e) EFFECTIVEDATES.— 294
(1) INGENERAL.—Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, the amendments made by this section shall apply to qualified film and television productions commencing after December 31, 2007
(2) DEDUCTION.—The amendments made by subsection (c) shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2007.
Uh huh …. our government at work. Read the whole 400 + page report here at this pdf link.
Friday, October 3rd 2008 at 10:59 am
I wonder if this applies to Independent Film makers. If i have a production company, then do i qualify, or do i need to be one of the big companies producing big films? Hmm… should be interesting.
Friday, October 3rd 2008 at 11:29 am
Man that’s a good question. It probably would apply if you are the proper LLC, or Inc. or whatever kind of legal company structure. Probably only the accountant knows for sure!
Friday, October 3rd 2008 at 9:11 pm
I don’t understand what has changed. I deduct expenses from productions now, tapes, rentals, day-rates…? I dislike complicated documents. Good post though!