Sunday, February 19, 2012

A Taxing Competition

There seems to be a kind of tax break meme going on, from the sub-continent:

Budget 2012: 10 years tax holiday required for animation industry, says FICCI ...

... to Germany:

[Aardman] has hinted that tax breaks on the Continent could lead to the production of its latest TV show being moved to Germany.

About 40 new jobs are to be created thanks to a new animated TV series called Ploo, but one of the bosses at the home of Wallace of Gromit has warned that just a handful are likely to be in Bristol. ...

... to Vancouver, British Columbia:

... American companies are lured by a local tax break of 17.5 percent and various other incentives tailored to attracting special effects and computer animation projects in British Columbia. ...

The favorable tax terms serve as a magnet for what is now a thriving industry, which works on some 250 films each year and provides employment for about 30,000 local workers. ...

The style of our fine, entertainment conglomerates (and allied companies) is to find the best tax and exchange rate and dive right in.

And afterwards, when circumstances (and tax incentives) change, to just as quickly pull up stakes and move on to the next bargain. Such is the way of today's movie industry titans. For both production-production and post-production.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Question--don't actors used in Canada and elsewhere on film and tv shown in the U.S. have to be SAG? And pay SAG rates?

Anonymous said...

No, actors don't all need to be SAG. You don't even have to pay SAG actors rates in the US if you aren't a signatory. SAG in theory should punish them but they typically don't.

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