Budget 2021: Film and television production tax credits

The federal government provides two tax credit programs for the film and television industry. The Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC) provides a 25% refundable tax credit on qualified labour expenditures, and is available to productions certified to be Canadian film or video productions. The Film or Video Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC) provides a 16% refundable credit on qualified Canadian labour expenditures, and is available to both foreign films and videos produced in Canada.

In order to qualify for either credit, qualifying expenditures must generally be incurred within a 24-month period before the date that principal photography begins. In recognition of the disruption caused to the film and television industry by the pandemic, the Budget proposes to extend that 24-month period by 12 months, for qualifying expenditures under both credit programs. That 12-month extension is also provided with respect to the deadline by which completion certificates must be filed for purposes of the CPTC.

The extension of time would be provided for productions for which eligible expenditures were incurred by taxpayers in their taxation years ending in 2020 or 2021.

To learn more about the 2021 Federal Budget, please click here.