Tweet

Independent Film and Movie Financing Via Tax Credits in Canada

Guest post by: Stan Prokop

Article Overview: Television, Animation and Film financing in Canada via Tax Credit Loan Strategies .Information on how Independent Film , television and Animation project owners can utilize tax credits as a key financing strategy . Cash and Working Capital via tax credit loan strategies

Independent Film and Movie Financing Via Tax Credits in Canada

It certainly might look like somewhere in Hollywood, but the reality is that much film, and television projects are produced and filmed in Hollywood North, a.k.a Canada.

The Canadian government at both the federal and provincial levels has moved to significantly enhance the generosity around tax credits. Business owners of film, television, and yes animation also can utilize these tax credits to form an integral part o their overall project financing strategy.

A very significant portion of your project expenses can be recovered via the appropriate use of tax credits. Moreover, you can finance these claim prior to, or at the time of filing. This generates working capital and cash flow for the current project, and in many cases we speak to clients who intend to use these funds for their next project.

It can be very realistically stated the may projects in film, tv, and digital animation in fact could perhaps not be funded or completed without the effective use of tax credits . When you can ' monetize ' or ' cash flow ' those credits now you have just taken advantage of a powerful overall project financing strategy! As a result all areas of Canadian entertainment in our three aforementioned market segments continue to generate box office revenue in Canada. What was a new and innovative strategy in years past now becomes a priority ' job 1 ' in the financing of almost every project .

Entertainment projects in film, tv and animation clearly ' follow the money ' and that money has been followed to Canada in a number of different provinces - primarily Ontario and B.C. , but in other provinces also .

While there is great pressure in many of the U.S. states to reduce, or in some cases eliminate tax credit incentives Canada has in fact increased incentives in every area - the government has essentially based its case that there is a huge economic windfall to Canada by virtue of the tax incentives offered . The term ' domino theory ' might well be mentioned, because the way the Canadian government sees it additional revenue comes into Canada in the form of hotels, food, carpentry, etc

So how are these tax credits financed? In any business your probably are ahead of the game when you work with an expert, and certainly tax credit finance is no different. We recommend to clients they work with a trusted, credible and experienced advisor in this area. When you project is well documented in the form of a project finance plan , and has solid Canadian content in key areas such as Director, Writer, Performers, Art, Music or Animation you have a very significant ability to enhance your total claim for the credit. (Other key areas of your total project are of course: Equity contribution via owners or investors, foreign pre sales, etc)

Your eligible tax credits can be financed as soon as they are filed - if you have a strong mgmt team - i.e. a good entertainment accountant, lawyer, etc, your credits can even be financed before you file them. That's a total cash flow strategy that provides valuable cash flow and working capital to you project.

Let's look at a quick example - let's assume your production is budgeted at 1.04 Million dollars, and your labour component is 571k. Your labour to production ratio is 54%. Using Ontario as a current example the tax credit on this project would come in at 45% of your labour budget - That nets you 257,000.00$ in capital .If you finance your claim you could receive a significant portion of those funds almost immediately .

Utilize the services of a film financing expert to investigate the financing of your tax credits. Prepare a solid project finance plan and let the cash flow from monetizing your credits enhance the viability of your project.

Related Articles
  Striking Gold With Film Tax Credits – Finance Ontario and BC Film Production Incentives
  Cash Flowing your B.C. and Ontario film grants – Film Financing Canada and Tax Credit Financing
  Film Financing in Canada - Use a Tax Credit Consultant for Tax Credit Financing and Cash Flow
  How to ace film funding and film incentives for film tax credits in Canada
  Film Tax Credit Financing – Working Capital for Canadian Productions
  Can You Afford Not To Use Film Tax Credits When Financing a Film In Canada - An Investor Primer
  Why The Canada Film Tax Credit Program Is Critical To Your Film Financing
  The Real Truth On Canadian Film Tax Credit – Let Movie & Animation Financing Refund Loans Enhance Your Project
  Independent Film Financing via a Film Tax Credit Finance Strategy
  Film And Animation Project Finance - It’s A Mad Mad World Without The Canadian Film Tax Credits
  Why You Need Film Tax Credits and Why the Canada Film Tax Credit System Works For Your Project
  Looking For Canadian Tax Credits For Film Financing?
  How to Finance a Film ,TV , or Animation Project Via a Film Tax Credit Film Financing Strategy
  Are There Canadian film financing banks For My Tax Credits?
  Use Canadian Film Tax Credit Policy for Successful Financing and of Film , TV , And Animation Projects
  Financing Independent Movies Via Tax Credits For Indie Film financing
  Canadian Film Projects Utilize Ontario Film Tax Credit Financing For Success
  Why the financing film tax credits provides ‘real’ film tax breaks and film tax incentives to your project
  Using Film Tax Incentives For Television, Animation and Film Finance in Canada
  How Film Financiers Can Monetize and Cash Flow Your Film tax incentive

Article Tags: independent film financing, movie financing, tax credits



Related Forum Posts
Research & Development Tax Credits - If anyone is involved in any sort of R&D I have a contact that can submit an application for you to the Government of Canada to get back upto 80% of expenses you may have incurred. Best of all - all this at no cost to you. She's worked with companies of all sizes and part of her services, which are included is how to structure yourself in the future to continue to receive these Government Tax Credits. She can even go back to the last three years in your books to get Tax Credits refunds as well. Email me and I can share her details with you.
Re: Working with Camtasia - [quote="kayanat":3og0rosu]Can I make Camtasia recordings work on Windows Movie Maker? Is it possible to save the recordings I record with Camtasia into another format so they will work on Windows Movie Maker?[/quote:3og0rosu] Absolutely. Just save the recording as an AVI or MPEG and then load it into Windows Movie Maker and edit from there. Of course, Camtasia provides some nice editing tools as well.
Re: Poll: Video Marketing Online, Do you use it? - Here's the key: get started! My first videos were pretty bad - they were shaky, the lighting was terrible, I was nervous. And they slowly got better. I researched a better camera, I picked up some better lighting, and with practice my deliver got better as well. I started off using Windows Movie Maker. Then I used a combination of Movie Maker and Camtasia. Now I outsource everything through oDesk. My old video as almost embarrassing as I look back on them but if I didn't get started with those I wouldn't be where I am today. Get started!
Don't they know there are spammers out there? - Just a rant.... I have a spam filter on my email, such that every day probably about 20 or more emails a day end up in my Bulk folder and I don't even see them. But I still see dozens of spam messages a day in my Inbox, and I recognize them by their titles, if they just say, "Hello," or "Hi" or some other generic title, I know it's spam and I just delete it without even opening it - as you must do. Today I got an email from someone, and the title was "wff". Just that. Not even capital letters. Normally I would have just deleted it without reading it, but fortunately I saw the name of the author, and it was a name I recognized, not a friend but an acquaintance - someone who works for the Williamsburg Film Festival. And the title "wff" was of course Williamsburg Film Festival. And I wonder how many businesses send out emails to potential customers with generic subject lines so that their stuff gets sent to the Trash file without even being looked at.
Re: Working with Camtasia - Can I make Camtasia recordings work on Windows Movie Maker? Is it possible to save the recordings I record with Camtasia into another format so they will work on Windows Movie Maker?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Fighting the Saw-Tooth Affect

Sales is a Flawed Model

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.