Production Incentives

In Australia, there is a two-tiered system offering both Federal and State-based incentives, to international and domestic production companies.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

The Federal Government offers a number of production attraction incentive programs:

$540M LOCATION INCENTIVE PROGRAM
Provides the equivalent of a maximum 30% rebate of Qualifying Australian Production Expenditure (QAPE).
Administered as a grant offering a maximum of 13.5% of QAPE which can be combined with the existing 16.5% Location Offset.
Eligibility criteria for the Location Offset applies.
Feature films and television must have minimum spend of AUD$15M of QAPE.
Television series also require average QAPE of AUD$1M per hour.
In addition, support from relevant state or territory governments must be secured and the services of one or more Australian post, digital or visual effects providers must be utilised.

40% PRODUCER OFFSET (FEATURE)
Provides a rebate of 40% of Qualifying Australian Production Expenditure (QAPE).
Significant Australian Content (SAC) Test applies.
Applies to feature films including the theatrical documents, animation and IMAX that have a minimum QAPE of AUD$500,000.

30% POST DIGITAL & VISUAL EFFECTS OFFSET
Provides a rebate of 30% of qualifying Post, Digital and Visual Effects (PDV) production expenditure.
The production must have a total PDV related QAPE of at least AUD$500,000.
Distribution can include television broadcast, online distribution, direct-to-video or direct-to-DVD.
The production does not need to be filmed in Australia.

30% PRODUCER OFFSET (TV)
Significant Australian Content (SAC) Test applies.
Eligible formats include TV drama, documentary and animation.
Distribution can include television broadcast, online distribution, direct-to-video or direct-to-DVD.

16.5% LOCATION OFFSET
Provides a rebate of 16.5% calculated on Qualifying Australian Production Expenditure (QAPE).
Feature films and television must have minimum spend of AUD$15M of QAPE.
Television series also require average QAPE of AUD$1M per hour.
Eligible formats can include feature films, telemovies, mini-series or series.
Distribution can include television broadcast, online distribution, direct-to-video or direct-to-DVD.

CO-PRODUCTION TREATY
Official co-productions are automatically eligible for the Producer Offset.
Australia currently has treaties in force with the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Israel, Germany, Korea, South Africa, Singapore and China, and Memorandum of Understanding with France and New Zealand.

STATE GOVERNMENT

Australian state governments provide highly competitive incentives to approved productions to attract “footloose” projects to the State. The attraction program is discretionary and incentives are provided in the form of rebates, which are generally formulated based on the qualifying production expenditure within the state.

The NSW state government offers one of the most attractive incentive programs. ‘Made in NSW’ is a $175M fund over five year (2020/2021 – 2024/2025) to support the attraction to NSW of significant international and domestic feature film and major TV drama production.

The Post, Digital and Visual Effects (PDV) fund, offers a 10% rebate of qualifying PDV work carried out in NSW.

There are also a number of funding opportunities for local filmmakers for screen projects at various stages of production. This ranges from Early Development to Advanced Development; Production Finance for projects ready to go into production; Regional Filming Fund grants for projects with more than five days production in regional NSW; and a program to support emerging filmmakers.

The incentive is determined on a case-by-case basis, taking into account demonstrable benefits including job creation, production expenditure, skills development and technology transfer.

State incentives are in addition to the Australian Federal Government’s Location Incentive, Location Offset, Post, Digital & Visual Effects Offset, Producer Offset and Co-Production Program.