FILM TAX CREDIT NET VALUE · RUNS IN YOUR BROWSER · NOTHING UPLOADED

What is my production tax credit really worth?

A 25% credit is not 25 cents on the dollar of budget. It pays on qualified spend only, may hit a cap or a minimum, is often sold at a discount, costs fees, and arrives months after wrap. Type your programme's terms and your budget; it shows the net cash, the cents you keep per credit dollar, what one more qualified dollar is worth, and how the answer moves with sale price and wait.

Planning arithmetic on numbers you type in. Not legal, tax or financial advice. The example figures are placeholders, not any real programme.

1. The production and the programme (type these from the incentive guidelines)

2. Turning the credit into cash

Questions people ask

What does a film tax credit actually put into my budget?

Less than its face value. The credit is paid on qualified spend only, may be capped, often arrives months after wrap, and is frequently sold or transferred at a discount to someone who can use it. Enter your programme's rate, your qualified share of the budget, the cents on the dollar you expect, the fees and the wait, and the tool shows the net cash and what it is worth in today's money.

What counts as qualified spend?

That is defined by your incentive programme, not by this tool. Many programmes count only spend inside their territory and exclude some above-the-line fees or out-of-area costs. Type the share of your budget your programme or its auditor says qualifies, and use the grid to see how much the answer moves if that share is 10 points higher or lower.

How do I find the sale price of a credit?

Ask the credit broker or your production accountant for current indications, and treat the sale price as a range. The grid shows the net cash at five sale prices and five qualified-spend shares so you can see what a bid is worth before you accept it.

What is the marginal value of one more qualified dollar?

It is how many cents of net cash one extra dollar of qualified spend brings into the budget, found by re-running the model with a little more spend. It reads zero when a cap binds and can be far below the headline rate once the sale discount and fees are taken out, which is why moving a shoot day in-territory is rarely worth the headline rate.

Does this tool know my state's or country's programme?

No. It embeds no programme, rate table or eligibility rule, because those change and a stale one would be worse than none. You type the numbers from the current guidelines, and the tool does the arithmetic and the sensitivities.

Is this tax, legal or financial advice?

No. It is arithmetic on figures you type, with simplified assumptions: one rate, one cap, one minimum, one sale price and a single payment date. It does not decide whether your production qualifies and is not an audit. Confirm eligibility and the numbers with your programme office, production accountant or tax adviser.

Not decided

Whether your production qualifies at all, which costs your programme counts, how your auditor will treat them, tax on the credit, whether the credit is a refund, a transferable certificate or an offset against tax owed, clawbacks or caps by year, and who bears the risk if the programme runs out of funds. Everything is modelled with one payment date and one sale price.

Related tools: the invoice payment terms calculator for what slow money costs, and the small business acquisition calculator for financing structures.