New York is looking to increase the cap on tax credits the state gives to the film and TV industry from $420 million to $700 million and raise the incentive to 30 percent, according to the 2023 state budget proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday.
The changes, which would run through 2034, are aimed at luring productions back from jurisdictions that left the state when it lowered its credit to 25 percent in 2020. Since then, states have turned to offering increasingly competitive incentives as film and TV production spending reached record highs. The proposal includes a 5 percent bump for TV series that relocate to New York, among other major revisions.
If the budget passes the legislature, it would also make above-the-line wage costs eligible for tax breaks for the first time, with certain restrictions. The credit would be capped at $500,000 per individual and limit above-the-line tax incentives to 40 percent of other qualified production expenses.
The proposed change follows Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker in April signing into law a measure that similarly allowed some non-resident wages to qualify. California is now the only state that doesn’t do so. See more at THR.
