Australian Screen Production Incentive Reforms

The Government’s Media Reforms Package - screen sector support, announced in the 2020-21 Budget, is a comprehensive package of reforms designed to drive the production and distribution of quality Australian screen content in a digital environment.

The Government has released the Exposure Draft Bill and Explanatory Memorandum for public consultation. The proposed legislation to implement the Media Reforms Package – screen sector support will:

• Increase the Producer Offset rate for non-feature film productions from 20 per cent to 30 per cent.
• Increase the threshold for feature length content supported through the Producer Offset from $500,000 to $1 million.
• Remove the 65 commercial hour episode cap for drama series.
• Remove the ability to claim production costs incurred in other countries towards the Producer Offset.
• Remove the ability to claim general business overhead expenses across all three tax offsets.
• Cap ‘above the line’ expenses to 20 per cent for non-feature documentary productions so that it aligns with the requirements for other eligible productions under the Producer Offset.
• Cap claims relating to copyright costs across all three tax offsets to 30 per cent of total production expenditure.
• Cap claims of production expenditure, for the Producer Offset, to the original version of the film and one re-version of the film.