State production tax incentives have become an increasingly important part of any financing plan for feature length fiction films. But what about documentary films?
Documentary filmmakers often do not consider production incentives because the filmmaker's focus is on the subject of the documentary - which drives the production locations. Even so, it is worth considering whether the state in which the subject of the documentary will be filmed offers production incentives. The incentives may help attract investors by guaranteeing at least partial recoupment of the investment, particularly if the financing structure permits the tax credit revenue to go first to those investors (if a film has other sources of financing such as grants or donation model crowdfunding revenues).
Even if only postproduction is done in a state with production incentives, those costs may be eligible for a tax credit refund or rebate, or be available to be sold if in a transferable tax credit state.
Of course, the structure of the financing of a documentary is critical in order to maximize the chances of monetizing state production incentives for documentaries in a tax efficient manner.
To help our clients and friends identify the states that make production tax incentives available for documentary filmmakers, we put together a summary which you can find here.
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