Australia Reviews Film Tax Offset Regime

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

31 October 2008

Assistant Treasurer, Chris Bowen, and Minister for the Arts, Peter Garrett have released an issues paper on the film tax offsets contained in Division 376 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.

Under Division 376, companies may be entitled to one of three refundable tax offsets in relation to Australian expenditure incurred in making films. The offsets are designed to support and develop the Australian screen media industry by providing concessional tax treatment for Australian expenditure.

However, the government has recognised some specific concerns raised by the independent television production sector in relation to the film tax offsets package. Section 376-275 of the Act requires the government to initiate a review within 12 months of the commencement of the legislation.

The issues paper seeks submissions on the effect of the film tax offsets on levels of independent and in-house television production.

"The statutory review aims to discover how the new film tax offsets introduced in 2007 have affected the levels of production of our independent producers compared to the levels of in-house production by our television broadcasters," Garrett said.

"When in opposition in September 2007, the government committed to conducting a review of the viability of the independent film production sector. The statutory review will provide valuable information for this process," he added.

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