Relates to eligibility for the empire state film post production credit; provides for eligibility for the credit if expenditures meet or exceed seventy-five percent of qualified expenditures, including picture and sound post production costs, music and visual effects; defines "picture and sound post production", "music", and "visual effects".
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6857--A
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
April 5, 2011
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ENGLEBRIGHT -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Ways and Means -- committee discharged, bill amended,
ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the tax law, in relation to the empire state film
production credit
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 31 of the tax law, as added by section 12 of part Q
2 of chapter 57 of the laws of 2010, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 31. Empire state film post production credit. (a) Allowance of cred-
4 it. (1) A taxpayer which is a qualified film production company, and
5 which is subject to tax under article nine-A or twenty-two of this chap-
6 ter, unless eligible for the credit under section twenty-four of this
7 article with respect to the qualified film, shall be allowed a credit
8 against such tax, pursuant to the provisions referenced in subdivision
9 (c) of this section to be computed as provided in this subdivision.
10 (2) The amount of the credit shall be the product (or pro rata share
11 of the product, in the case of a member of a partnership) of [ten] thir-
12 ty percent and the qualified post production costs paid in the
13 production of a qualified film at a qualified post production facility.
14 (3) A taxpayer shall not be eligible for the credit established by
15 this section unless the qualified post production costs at a qualified
16 post production facility meet or exceed seventy-five percent of the
17 [total post production costs] qualified expenditures with respect to any
18 one or more of the following subsets:
19 (i) picture and sound post production costs, as hereinafter defined;
20 (ii) music, as hereinafter defined; and (iii) visual effects, as herein-
21 after defined; as each may be paid or incurred in the post production of
22 the qualified film at any post production facility. The credit shall [be
23 allowed] only be allowed as to the subset or subsets for which the
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10413-04-1
A. 6857--A 2
1 seventy-five percent threshold has been met for the taxable year in
2 which the production of such qualified film is completed.
3 (4) No qualified post production costs used by a taxpayer either as
4 the basis for the allowance of the credit provided for under this
5 section or used in the calculation of the credit provided for under this
6 section shall be used by such taxpayer to claim any other credit allowed
7 pursuant to this chapter.
8 (b) Definitions. As used in this section the following terms shall
9 have the following meanings:
10 (1) "Qualified film production company" and "qualified film" shall
11 have the same meaning as are ascribed to such terms by section twenty-
12 four of this article.
13 (2) "Post production costs" means any expenditure in picture and sound
14 post production, music, or visual effects, as herein defined, in
15 connection with the production of original content for a qualified film
16 employing traditional, emerging and new workflow techniques used in
17 post-production [for picture, sound and music editorial, rerecording and
18 mixing, visual effects, graphic design, original scoring, animation, and
19 musical composition; but]. For purposes of this paragraph, "picture and
20 sound post production" shall include costs incurred in picture and sound
21 editorial, assembly, recording, rerecording, mixing, transfers, related
22 equipment and facility fees, screening, color grading, color correction,
23 scanning, film cleaning, conforming, and laboratory services; "music"
24 shall include costs incurred in original scoring, music editorial, and
25 related equipment and facility fees; "visual effects" shall include
26 costs incurred in graphic design, compositing, tracking, removals,
27 animation, data archiving, rentals; however, the foregoing shall not
28 include the editing of previously produced content for a qualified film.
29 (3) "Post production facility" means a building and/or complex of
30 buildings and their improvements on which film are intended to be post
31 produced.
32 (4) "Qualified post production facility" means a post production
33 facility located in the state, engaged in finishing a qualified film.
34 (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the
35 aggregate amount of tax credits available under this section shall not
36 exceed the amounts allowed pursuant to subdivision (e) of section seven
37 of part P of chapter sixty of the laws of two thousand four and shall be
38 allocated in the same manner as provided for in subdivision (a) of
39 section seven of part P of chapter sixty of the laws of two thousand
40 four.
41 (d) Cross-references. For application of the credit provided for in
42 this section, see the following provisions of this chapter:
43 (1) article 9-A: section 210: subdivision 41.
44 (2) article 22: section 606: subsection (qq).
45 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
