Rebates
Cash and tax rebates have distinct advantages, the first and most important decision when starting your production is how to reduce the cost of production and at the same time increase production value.
Let us steer you towards some of these opportunities. We have listed eight partnering countries with rebate friendly incentives that offer great locations and a healthy infrastructure.
Equally important to producers and financiers is that the rebate manages risk by guaranteeing a turnaround on the local spend within a short period.
This advantage can be extremely useful to close gap financing or stand as collateral against cashflow loans.
So rebates in a nutshell make the production more financially viable, are more attractive to investors and this added value elevates cinematic scope and quality.
South Africa
Incentives
The filming incentives are based on the concept of Qualifying South African Production Expenditure (QSAPE), which is defined as the production costs spent by the applicant on copyright and goods owned, or facilities and services provided by South African companies and individuals. Eligible programme formats include feature films, tele-movies, television drama series and mini-series, documentary, documentary series and documentary features, animation and digital content / video gaming.
In the case of the post-production incentive, the concept is Qualifying South African post-Production Expenditure (QSAPPE), which includes music composition and licence fees, editing suites while out of South Africa, sound studios, roto/VFX outsource work and some animation outsource services, editorial and sound post-production, facilities and personnel used in the post-production process and movement of data, connectivity and couriers
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Foreign Film and Television Production and Post-Production Incentive (Foreign Film)
Benefits:
Production and post-production
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Shooting on location in South Africa, the incentive will be calculated at 25% of Qualifying South African Production Expenditure (QSAPE), with a cap of R50 million.
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An additional incentive of 5% of QSAPE is provided for productions shooting and conducting post-production in South Africa, and utilising the services of a black-owned service company.
SA Film & TV Production and Co-production (SA Film)
Benefits:
The rebate is calculated as 35% of QSAPE.
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An additional 5% of Qualifying South African Production Expenditure (QSAPE) is provided for productions hiring at least 30% of black South African citizens as HODs and procuring at least 30% of QSAPE from 51% South African black- owned entities which have been operating for at least a period of one year; with a cap of R50 million per project.
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The holding company and SPCV must achieve at least a level 3 and level 4 B-BBEE contributor status respectively, in terms of the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice.