Key Documents
In the 2023‑24 Budget and 2023‑24 MYEFO, the Government committed to supporting the Australian screen industry by increasing the rate of the location tax offset and introducing an alternative per season minimum expenditure threshold for drama series to the producer tax offset.
Location tax offset
The draft law would amend the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) to make changes to the location tax offset. These include increasing the rate of the tax offset to 30 per cent, increasing the minimum qualifying Australian production expenditure to $20 million and the per hour threshold to $1.5 million. The draft law also includes new eligibility requirements for minimum film training obligations and requires some post, digital and visual (PDV) effects for productions to be provided by Australian PDV providers.
Producer tax offset
The draft law also amends the ITAA 1997 to make changes to the producer tax offset to allow a film production company to also qualify for the producer tax offset by spending a minimum of $35 million for a season of a drama series, over a maximum period of 12 months of production or 36 months for an animated image film series.
Treasury is currently seeking views from interested parties on the proposed changes to the Location Offset and Producer Offset.