Hollywoodreporter.com reports that British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown confirmed his pledge to support filmmakers in the UK with a new set of tax credits as from 1 April.
The system will allow far more films to access tax relief. The qualifying spend levels have been brought down from the previous 40% of budgets to 25% upwards. This is likely to enable UK filmmakers to attract shoots from overseas. Salaries paid to UK actors will count as qualifying spend.
Producers will be able to obtain credits on the British spend levels of their budgets from 25% upwards. From 1 April, for movies with budgets of £20 million , tax relief will be available on qualifying amounts to filmmakers at a net rate of 16%. This means that for a film shooting in the UK with a budget of £50 million, the qualifying expenditure would come in at £40 million, which would mean a net benefit to producers of £8 million.
For low budget movies made for up to£20 million, the relief available stands at a net value of 20%. Both rates apply only to the UK spend of a film’s budget.
