Film and Entertainment

The UK has a film industry which is the envy of much of the world. Not only does the UK offer favourable tax breaks for filmmakers, its buildings and streets are suitable to shoot period drama as well as the most modern and futuristic scenes.

Since 2007 the UK Film Tax Relief has encouraged productions into the country. Further to the extension of the Film Tax Relief in 2014 to cover high-end television, animation for broadcast and video games, HMRC has recently announced new changes to the beneficial tax credit arrangements we have for overseas productions to attract them to the UK. These changes include:

• A reduction in the minimum UK spend threshold from 25% to 10%
• The removal of the distinction between limited budget films meaning that any qualifying film production company can claim a payable cash rebate of 25% of all qualifying UK expenditure
• There is no cap on the amount of tax relief that can be claimed but all reliefs are capped at 80% of the total production budget

Films also have to be British qualifying films and either have to pass what is termed the "Cultural Test" or qualify under a co-production agreement. The Cultural Test is assessed via a questionnaire which needs to be submitted with supporting material: to qualify films have to score 18 out of a possible 35 points. James Cowper Kreston are currently helping clients obtain these tax credits and cultural test certificates, which although available to films from any overseas jurisdiction, particularly come from the US and India.

We can also help you with:

• Line production
• Film crew selection
• Equipment hire
• Production rental house with exhaustive inventory which includes camera & lenses, complete grips with accessories and lights
• Post production services

Does your project qualify? For more details please contact:

Meera Rajah on mrajah@jamescowper.co.uk,

Alex Peal on apeal@jamescowper.co.uk or

Robert Holland on rholland@jamescowper.co.uk