CANADA FILMING INCENTIVES

The Ontario Production Services Tax Credit (OPSTC)

Overview

Type of incentivePayroll Tax Rebate
Qualifying formats
  • - Feature film - fiction (theatrical)
  • - Feature film - documentary (theatrical)
  • - TV Film or TV series - fiction
  • - TV Film or TV series - documentary
  • - Post production/special effects for film & tv (fiction)
  • - Post production/special effects for film & tv (non-fiction)
Qualifying productions
  • - National productions
  • - Foreign productions
  • - Co-productions

Specifics

Benefit as a % of spend21.50
Financial cap per production-
Do I have to register/set up a company?Yes
Does foreign cast/crew paid in their home country/region qualify as expenditure? No
Do foreign cast/crew have to pay tax in the host country/state/region? Yes
Does travel to/from country/region qualify as expenditure? Yes
Can a production qualify for other national incentives such as cultural programmes if it qualifies for this incentive? Yes
Criteria to access the benefit
  • - Minimum percentage of the film that must be shot in the region: 0.00%
  • - Minimum total value of production 1000000 (in local currency)
  • - Use Local cast & Crew
When will the benefit/incentive be received?
  • - On submission of audited accounts
Additional incentives or advantages
  • - VAT / GST /Sales Tax recoverable
  • - Rece tour assistance, location finding service
  • - A minimum total value of production must exceed CAD1 million for films and TV films; CAD100,000 per episode for TV series of 30 minutes or less and CAD200,000 per episode if over 30 minutes. A federal tax credit of 16% can be received on eligible Canadian labour expenditures. Regarding Regional Sales Tax, you must contact the Film Service Units (FSUs), who administer or provide access to all Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) programmes dealing with film production in Canada and foreign location filming in Canada.

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