After early reports in July that a proposal for a 25% cash rebate was being considered by the Finnish Government, we can now confirm that the incentive will be implemented from 2017 onwards.
The film rebate scheme available in Mauritius has increased from the previous rate of 30% to 40%. The increase is designed to entice more international productions to film in the island nation, covering costs relating to transport, accommodation and production services amongst others.
Switzerland has launched a new film incentive programme for co-productions that shoot on location in the country. Entitled the Switzerland Film Investment Refund (PICS), the scheme allows co-productions to claim back between 20% and 40% on all eligible local expenditures, with a per-project cap of CHF600,000.
Louisiana’s tax credit incentive has been depleted for this financial year, after the programme had its funding cut from USD222 million to USD180 million. The scheme was slashed last year by ex-Governor Bobby Jindal in an effort to curb Government spending, which has now failed to compensate for the state’s popularity.
A proposal to bring a new form of film incentives into the state of Indiana will be presented in the next legislative season. The state has been without such a programme since 2012 but if accepted, the legislation could offer a 30% tax break on locally incurred expenses for productions with budgets over USD500,000.
To provide television productions with more financial incentives for filming, the United Kingdom and South Africa have signed a co-production agreement to share their funding opportunities.
After a fierce lobbying campaign in the nation’s Government over the last year, Finland may finally be getting a film incentive programme of its own. In the event of numerous suggestions being submitted in late 2015, the Minister of Education and Culture, Sanni Grahn-Laasonen established a task force to construct a single proposal for the incentive to be considered for the state budget.
In an effort to maintain Nova Scotia’s growing film industry and inspire more producers to shoot on location, the province’s Film Fund will be provided with an extra CAD1.5 million, bringing the overall total to CAD11 million.