incentives

The French PSC files a provisional qualification at the CNC, with the necessary supporting documents. The standard application file is available on the CNC website: www.cnc.fr. The application cannot be submitted until at least a preliminary Production service agreement (PSA) has been signed.

Indeed, this contract is one of the mandatory documents for applying.

Qualifying expenditures start the date of reception of the application by the CNC. No spending incurred before this date will be taken into account for the TRIP. The CNC, following Film France’s assessment, will decide whether the project is eligible based only on the criteria defined above. The applicant is then granted a provisional qualification.

Maximum 24 months after the last French spend the French PSC submits a final qualification application to the CNC, along with the mandatory documents, including a DVD.
The CNC then verifies that the production still complies with the qualifying criteria, in which case a final qualification is issued.

The tax authorities may pay the tax rebate before the final qualification application has been submitted. However, it is the final qualification that officially confirms the right to this tax rebate. Should the final qualification be refused, the tax authorities would demand the tax rebate to be reimbursed. At the end of each fiscal year, a statutory auditor must certify the yearly production accounts, which, along with the provisional qualification and the income tax return, is sent by the French PSC to the tax authorities.

A refund is issued by the French State to the extent the production tax credit exceeds the company’s tax liability.

The TRIP is exempt of tax and VAT exempt.

Even though the TRIP is a non-transferable debt of the State to the French PSC, as soon as provisional qualification has been obtained, banks are legally allowed to monetize this refundable tax credit so that the production company can get the money earlier.

Any production that received the TRIP must mention as follows in the beginning or ending credits, either in French or in the original language of the production: “Cette oeuvre a bénéficié du crédit d’impôt en faveur de la production de films étrangers en France”, This film benefited from the French Tax Rebate for International Production.”

· wages paid to French or EU writers (advances on earnings) and related social contributions, under French contract

· wages paid to French or European actors, including extras and artists responsible for the dubbing, commentary, voice-overs, post-synchronization, recording of the soundtrack, and the related social contributions.

Note that the payments considered for the tax rebate are capped at the minimum wages set in the French movie or TV collective bargaining agreements.

Including related social media contributions.

Production crew members responsible for:

• Artistic direction, development, and writing direction.
• Direction and administrative, technical, and accounting production management.
• Direction preparation and assistance.
• Technique and artistic quality of shots.
• Technique and artistic quality of soundtrack recordings, -set design and construction.
• Artistic design of costumes, wigs, and clothing accessories, -Creation of costumes and accessories.
• Dressing and care for costumes.
• Actors’ makeup.
• Creation of wigs and hairpieces, as well as hairstyling, -Props for the set.
• Preparation and creation of special effects, including stunts.

Production workers responsible for:

• Machinery.
• Lighting.
• Set construction.

Team members in charge of:

• Rigging and animation set up.
• Storyboarding.
• Character conception and modeling, -Set conception and modeling, -Exposure sheets,
• Pre-visualization.
• Rotoscopy.
• Tracking.
• Motion capture.
• Lay out.
• Animation.
• Set construction.

• Renting sound stages and adjoining premises.
• Renting locations specifically rented for shooting, excluding residential areas.
• Set construction on the shooting sites.
• Furniture rental (only that specifically needed for building or creating the set).
• Preparation and production of special effects, including stunts.
• Renting and creating costumes, hairstyles, and makeup.
• Equipment needed for shots, lighting, and sound pickup.
• Animation (preparation and creation).
• Equipment, supplies, computer hardware and software used directly for the animation process. The aforementioned computer software must be paid off during the production of the work for which it was designed or purchased.
• Post-production: image lab, image editing, voice recording, sound effects and sound design, mixing, sound editing, credits and trailers.
• Digital visual effects.
• Negative image film, magnetic sound film, and in general, all digital or non-digital image and sound media; filming, finishing, video, and subtitling studios.

A refund is issued by the French State to the extent the production tax credit exceeds the company’s tax liability.

The TRIP is exempt of tax and VAT exempt.

• Transport and travel of artistic and technical materials and supplies (only as strictly needed for production).
• Transport and catering for the artistic and technical teams (only as strictly needed for production; nothing lavish).

This also concerns international transport of materials as well as international travel costs of the crew and cast (in and out).

ACOMODATION EXPENDITURES
Capped at 270 € per night in greater Paris and up to 200 € per night elsewhere.

Tax-deductible depreciation accruals for fixed assets held by the line production company and directly related to the production of the film or television work for which a tax rebate may be claimed. Only those depreciation expenses that correspond to the period in which the asset was actually used to produce the work eligible for the tax rebate go toward the rebate.

A MAIN CHARACTER
Is a character present in at least 25% of the scenes.

A SECONDARY CHARACTER
Is a character whose on screen representation requires at least 4 days of work on the final production shooting schedule and is not a main character. Note that this definition of characters allows a virtual character to score points.

France consists of the metropolitan territory and of the following:

Corsica, French Guyana, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Réunion, St. Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Wallis and Futuna.

LIST OF COUNTRIES CONCERNED

Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Turkey, Ukraine, United-Kingdom.

A French speaking country is a member of the International Organization of “La Francophonie”

LIST OF COUNTRIES CONCERNED

Albania, Andorra, Moldavia, Monaco, Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Dem. Rep. of the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Sao Tome et Principe, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Maurice, Seychelles, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Canada, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Quebec, Dominica, Haiti, Sainte Lucia, Cambodia, Laos, Vanuatu, Vietnam.