Recent News

State Unveils New Tax Credit Program for Entertainment Projects

(onthehill.tnjournal.com)

The state Entertainment Commission and the Department of Economic and Community Development are launching a new tax credit program to promote projects in Tennessee.

Here’s the full release:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Entertainment Commission (TEC), in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Revenue and Department of Economic and Community Development, announced today a new franchise and excise (F&E) tax credit program aimed to advance Tennessee’s entertainment industry by promoting job creation and economic development.

Companies approved as a qualified production can apply for a tax credit generated through resident and non-resident Tennessee payroll expenses and apply for a point of purchase sales tax exemption certificate on non-payroll expenses. Qualified productions include scripted and unscripted television, feature films, video game development, animation, commercials and audio/visual postproduction.

“Tennessee is home to one of the most robust entertainment industries in the world, and we strive to provide the resources needed for our state to build upon this momentum,” TNECD Commissioner Bob Rolfe said. “We are proud to partner with the Department of Revenue and Tennessee Entertainment Commission and look forward to seeing how this new program will further strengthen our state’s entertainment footprint while creating additional jobs for Tennesseans.”

The F&E tax credit is generated by Tennessee payroll expenditures for all above-the-line and below-the-line talent services being performed in the state on a qualified production. The standard credit generates up to 40 percent on resident and non-resident payroll expenses, with a 10 percent uplift on payroll expenses for Tennesseans living in economically distressed areas.

“We appreciate the opportunity to work with the Tennessee Entertainment Commission, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, and the entertainment industry to make this incentive a success,” Revenue Commissioner David Gerregano said. “Through this collaboration, we are happy to support the continued growth of Tennessee’s entertainment industry.”

In addition to the tax credit, the program offers a point of purchase sales and use tax exemption on qualified goods and services providing an immediate and usable benefit to the taxpayer. This point of purchase sales tax exemption generates a savings of 9.25 percent to 9.75 percent on all taxable goods or services and tangible personal property necessary to the qualified production.

The program creates a sustainable model for the industry, encouraging musicians, professional filmmakers, television producers and video game developers to create and share their craft. The F&E tax credit program will also help market the state while supporting the talented professionals in the entertainment industry.

“Incentives play a pivotal role in the development of talent, workforce and infrastructure in the entertainment industry,” TEC Executive Director Bob Raines said. “The Tennessee Entertainment Commission continues to work toward dedicated and intentional strategies that reinforce and retain our creative class.”

TEC promotes and facilitates economic development of the entertainment industry through the recruitment of business to Tennessee. Since 2017, TEC has assisted more than 1,100 production projects, and nearly 10,000 Tennessee workers have been hired as a result of these projects.

To learn more about the new F&E tax credit program, visit tnentertainment.com/film/incentives/fe-incentive.

About the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development’s mission is to develop strategies that help make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs. To grow and strengthen Tennessee, the department seeks to attract new corporate investment to the state and works with Tennessee companies to facilitate expansion and economic growth. Find us on the web: tnecd.com. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Like us on Facebook. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

By: Erik Schelzig

Continue Reading at onthehill.tnjournal.com

LUMIERE Secures Funding From Animoca Brands and Brinc to Accelerate Its Vision of Revolutionizing Movie and Animation Financing

(yahoo.com)

HONG KONG, April 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Lumiere — the creator of Lumiverse, the trusted metamarket for safer movie and entertainment IP investments — announced today it has raised US$300,000 in financial backing from Animoca Brands, the company advancing digital property rights for gaming and the metaverse, and Brinc, leading global venture accelerator founded on a sustainability mandate.

Lumiere offers entertainment finance solutions, which syndicate and considerably lower investment risks for movie financiers, and turns film- and entertainment-project financing upside-down by testing audiences and IPs at pre-script levels. Its platform is an integrated NFT- and blockchain-powered metaverse space, where professionals and audiences alike connect through an immersive experience and start transacting and collaborating on creative projects together in a trust-based context.

As a graduate of the Launchpad Luna virtual accelerator program, established in mid-2021 as a partnership between Brinc and Animoca Brands, Lumiere will use the financing to forge ahead with its roadmap plans for 2022. From collaborations with notable creators and brands such as RollingStone Italy, Ryan Reynolds’ remake of Buried for China, the Kenzo Takada series, a Cannes film running for official selection backed by Canal+ and Wild Bunch, there are also eight key pipeline clients to be revealed in due time. These achievements will culminate in a series of events at leading film festivals and markets such as the Festival De Cannes, Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and Venice Film Festival.

Additionally, Lumiere intends to collaborate with The Sandbox — a leading decentralized gaming virtual world and subsidiary of Animoca Brands — to gamify the connection of audiences with film, and create a more interactive and engaging experience for fans

Patrice Poujol, CEO of Lumiere, said: “We are truly delighted to have such connected and visionary investors as Animoca Brands to validate the concept and living dream of Lumiere. Going forward, we plan to transform the movie and animation industry in an ever more engaging and sustainable sector. Our exciting NFT and metaverse initiatives will find roots at the prestigious Cannes film festival in May.”

By: Yahoo

Continue Reading at yahoo.com

Camden County Breaks Into Show Business

(tapinto.net)

 

CAMDEN, NJ — Camden County thinks it’s got star quality.

To capitalize on its photogenic venues and people – and attract more business opportunities and jobs – Camden and Gloucester counties have teamed up to pitch themselves to film and television production companies.

The neighboring counties have launched the South Jersey Film Cooperative. They hope to entice movie and TV executives, producers and independent filmmakers to use local venues as on-camera backdrops and get jobs for residents and businesses in upcoming TV shows, movies and documentaries.

“We are always looking for innovative ways to bring new employment and economic opportunities into Camden County. Our South Jersey Film Cooperative is another way to accomplish that mission,” said county Commission Director Louis Cappelli Jr. He calls the new cooperative “one-stop shopping” for the TV and movie industry.

Communities in Camden and Gloucester counties have a variety of main streets, urban areas, dense forests and manicured parks, historic sites, sprawling farms and more, Cappelli said.

“Camden County has unique geography that can serve as settings for a variety of film projects. Whether it’s an urban backdrop or a rural terrain in the Pine Barrens, Camden County has so much to offer,” Cappelli said.

Currently filming in Garden State are episodes of “Law & Order: Organized Crime” and “The Equalizer;” Hulu’s “Wu-Tang: An American Saga;” and the FX miniseries “Retreat.” Also filming are movies like “Isle of the Dead,” “Knock At The Cabin Door;” and “The Untenable,” according to the NJ Motion Picture & Television Commission.

None are being filmed in Camden or Gloucester counties, but Capelli says “we want to change.”

By: Tony Gallotto

Continue Reading at tapinto.net

Attracting More Filmmakers To W.Va. On This West Virginia Morning

(wvpublic.org)

On this West Virginia Morning, with the signing of House Bill 2096, West Virginia reinstates its film tax credit. We take a closer look at how the filmmaking incentive is expected to put thousands to work and bring millions of dollars into the state economy.

Also, in this show, we have The Allegheny Front’s latest story, all about recycling glass.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from West Virginia University, Concord University, and Shepherd University.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

By: WV Public Broadcasting

Continue Reading at wvpublic.org

Hochul’s First Budget Rewards Unions at Taxpayers’ Expense — and Sets the State on the Road to Insolvency

(nypost.com)

New Yorkers are aghast that the Buffalo Bills stadium deal, which will fill the pockets of a wealthy NFL team owner with their tax dollars, is in the state budget the Legislature just adopted.

But it’s not exactly a rogue element.

The stadium giveaway is really a metaphor for the entire $220 billion package, whose defining feature — other than its enormous price tag — is the degree to which it’s packed with subsidies for well-heeled business interests and big labor unions.

No doubt the stadium deal is a useful Exhibit A. Economists on both the right and left agree taxpayers are typically the losers in such publicly funded sports-stadium arrangements.

We can’t know for sure if a harder bargain would’ve sent the team packing. But even if it had, residents wouldn’t necessarily have lost. Most spending that now goes toward Bills games would have been redirected to other forms of local entertainment. The team’s wealthy owners, the Pegula family, are among the few clear winners in this deal.

It’s the same story with most of the budget’s economic-development spending and business tax credits (some of which are just disguised spending). The budget extends all the way through 2029 the film-production tax credit (which was set to expire in 2026) that bestows nearly a half-billion dollars of taxpayer funds annually on studios that film in New York — beneficiaries include wealthy Hollywood producers. The budget also kowtows to software lobbyists by creating a “digital gaming media production credit” for the video-game industry.

Like the stadium deal, these tax credits don’t add jobs — they allow Albany politicians to reallocate them by deciding which industries will succeed and which will fail, substituting political calculus for the market’s invisible hand. This is not a winning formula, as evidenced by the state’s anemic post-pandemic jobs recovery, which lags that of nearly every other state.

By: Peter Warren

Continue Reading at nypost.com