HOW THE GOLD COAST COMPARES

Australia: 16.5 to 40 per cent tax credit/rebate or grant

New Zealand: 20 to 25 per cent grant

Canada: 16 per cent tax credit

Georgia, Atlanta: 20-30 per cent transferable tax credit

UK: 25 per cent refundable tax credit

THE LEADER

Georgia, Atlanta, is now the No.1 filming location in the world, according to FilmLA. Film and television productions generated $9.5 billion in economic impact in Georgia in fiscal 2017 – including $2.7 billion in direct spending. A total of 320 film and television productions shot in the state, including several Marvel movies, Netflix’s Stranger Things and AMC’s The Walking Dead.

THE EXISTING OFFSET SITUATION IN AUSTRALIA

Australia has three offsets – also referred to as tax rebates. The financing mechanisms enable producers to claim back a proportion of the money they spend making film and television in Australia.

The Producer Offset (PO) is for Australian production only. Most Australian drama and documentary from the last 10 years that’s familiar to the public would have accessed the PO.

The Location Offset is one of the reasons high-profile foreign films are sometimes filmed in Australia, recent examples being Alien: Covenant, Aquaman and Thor: Ragnarok. It’s a 16.5 per cent offset on qualifying Australian production expenditure for film and TV projects filmed in Australia with an Australian spend of more than

$15 million. Has been lifted to 30 per cent on a case by case basis for films such as Aquaman and Thor: Ragnarok.

The Post, Digital and Video Effects (PDV) Offset is a 30 per cent offset that helps attract visual effects work from abroad – recently SpiderMan: Homecoming and Game of Thrones – and is also accessed by some Australian television that is ineligible for the PO. The Tax Office pays the offsets and only after a production is completed.