Federal Film and TV Tax Credit Hits Congress: Bipartisan Group Introduces Hollywood Bill

Following more than a year of intense industry lobbying, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress has introduced proposed legislation to establish a federal film and television tax credit in the U.S.

The Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act, led by Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA), Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX), Rep. Sanchez (D-CA) and Rep. Brian Jack (R-GA) in the House and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) in the Senate, would establish a 20 percent base tax credit on labor expenses if signed into law. Only projects with a budget over $1 million and where 75 percent of filming occurs in the U.S. would be eligible.

Four different uplifts would be available to increase that incentive to a maximum of 30 percent, rewarding independent projects, titles shot in “opportunity zones“ (areas considered economically distressed) or disaster-impacted regions, projects filmed in multiple places around the country (10 or more) and those that have increased domestic production relative to historical foreign-based amount.

News programs, talk shows, soap operas, live sports, social media videos, commercials and corporate videos would be exempted from the tax credit.

The federal incentive would be eligible to be stacked on top of individual state tax incentives, much like the current system in Canada and Australia. And notably, postproduction and VFX labor costs can be counted as eligible eligible expenses.

“For years, I’ve been championing a federal film tax credit to stop the exodus of tv and film production leaving the United States for countries offering higher incentives,“ Schiff said in a statement on Thrusday. “Now, we have the best opportunity in decades to get it done.”

His Senate colleague across the aisle, Scott, added in a statement, “Having worked in a movie theater growing up, I saw early on how films can move and inspire generations of Americans.” He continued, “We cannot stand by as more and more American film production moves overseas, taking jobs, investment, and an important source of American cultural influence with it.”

The legislation may be viewed as a welcome glimmer of hope for workers in the industry. Runaway production, strikes and a contraction in the business have tanked job opportunities in recent years, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics finding that jobs in the motion picture and video industries have declined by more than 100,000 since 2022.

While a federal film and television tax incentive was on the industry’s policy wishlist for some time, the unlock arrived thanks to an unusual area of common ground that Hollywood found with the second Trump administration. After the president appointed actor Jon Voight as one of his three “special ambassadors” to the industry, Voight brought the tax incentive to Mar-a-Lago as part of a larger policy package aimed at restoring domestic production and found a receptive ear at a time when the White House if focused on U.S. manufacturing.

While Trump initially embraced a solution of tariffs over a tax incentive, his tune changed over the summer during another meeting with Voight. “I am going to suggest that Republicans and Democrats get together, and immediately craft Legislation to save the Movie, Television, and Entertainment Business in America,” Trump wrote, referring to a federal tax credit, in a social media post on Aug. 31.

Republicans that were previously quietly supportive of the idea then went public with their endorsement of the idea, leading to the introduction of the bipartisan legislation on Thursday.

Rep. Moran of Texas was one of those conservative lawmakers. In a statement on Thursday, he explained his support in terms of the ancillary businesses, like catering companies, hardware stores and hotels, that benefit from production coming to a local area. “Those jobs are going overseas right now simply because other countries are offering bigger handouts,” he said. “If we want to keep American storytelling in America, we have to level the playing field, and that’s exactly what this bill does.”

His colleague Laura Friedman, of Los Angeles, has been a longtime supporter of the legislation and represents a district in the L.A. area that stretches vertically from Hollywood through Burbank up to areas east of Santa Clarita. For over a year, I’ve worked to build a coalition of unions, studios, Republicans & Democrats and the White House, because we knew that a national film tax credit would bring hundreds of thousands of jobsback to our country,” she said. “This bill is a result of that coalition. It tells every country that has been outbidding us for American work that we are done losing.”