AUSTRALIA FILMING INCENTIVES

South Australia: The Payroll Tax Exemption

Overview

Type of incentivePayroll Tax Exemption
Qualifying formats
  • - Feature film - fiction (theatrical)
Qualifying productions
  • - National productions
  • - Foreign productions
  • - Co-productions

Specifics

Benefit as a % of spend4.95
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? No
Criteria to access the benefit
  • - 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
  • - Any monies due to the production company will occur as part of the process of the production company’s lodgement of its tax return for the financial year in question. Australia’s tax year ends on 30th June. There are no national insurance contributions or social security charges in Australia. There are compulsory contributions for superannuation (pension fund) purposes; however, temporary residents are generally able to claim this back on departure. Foreign residents for tax purposes may also be subject to withholding tax. However, Australia has dual-tax treaties with a wide variety of countries.

[s]