New Georgia Law Limits Film Tax Credits. But Marvel Would Still Qualify.
In February, Reason reported that Georgia lawmakers were considering modest changes to the state’s film and television tax credits. So far, the state senate is backing off even those meager modifications.
For more than a decade, films or TV shows that filmed in Georgia and spent at least $500,000 in the state could qualify for a 20-percent tax credit; putting a “Made in Georgia” logo on the final product would boost the credit to 30 percent. Last year, the state certified $1.24 billion in production tax credits.
Auditors routinely find the production credit program to be a waste of money: Most recently, a 2023 audit conducted by Georgia State University’s Fiscal Research Center found that “net job creation is negative” as a result of the credits, and that each job created as a result of the program costs state taxpayers $160,000.
State law also allows the credits to be transferred, and production companies based in California pay very little in Georgia income taxes. As a result, the vast majority of recipients sell the credits: According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 97 percent of credits are sold by film companies, mostly to individuals who use them to offset their own tax liability.
For example, if a studio spends $1 million on a film shoot in Georgia, it could qualify for a $300,000 tax credit, but since the company likely won’t owe that much in Georgia taxes, it can sell that credit to someone else and bank the proceeds. State law even requires that any transferred credit be sold for at least 60 percent of face value, so the production company would net $180,000, and the buyer would get a $300,000 credit that he could carry forward for up to three years.
Last month, four state Republican lawmakers announced that there would be changes to the program. They suggested doubling the minimum investment to $1 million and ca
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