The Massachusetts Film Tax Credit

Tonight's State of the Union address coupled with the recently proposed MA state budget has got us thinking about taxes. And tax credits....

What makes major film and television work possible in Massachusetts is our film tax credit. Our understanding is that the production company pays to apply for the tax credit. In return, they get tax exempt status (that wonderful ST-12 form that is floating around the accounting office), and eventually get 25% of their total expenditure returned by the state.

Our state tax dollars give 25% of the money they spend back to producers? Yes. And, yes, we know this doesn't sound right, but financially it works out well for us. The tax credit lures major features here, where millions are spent on hotels, meals, transportation, and the supplies needed to build movie sets -- not to mention employ hundreds of local people (even us humble Production Assistants). We may only keep 75%, but that is millions more than having no films come to town.

Without the tax credit, we would have had to move to LA for this kind of work. Then we'd be competing with every recent film school grad from around the country, living in a crappy overpriced apartments, and finding shit day-playing jobs on Craigslist. News on Manny Ramirez would be unavoidable. We can't have that.

So, because we like jobs, and we like Boston, we here at the Boston Production Assistant like the MA Tax Credit.