TAX REBATE FOR INTERNATIONAL VFX PRODUCTION

The Tax Rebate for International Production gives you 30% rebate on your French VFX studio bill, provided you spend at least €250k in eligible expenditures. NEW: 10% bonus available !

NEW: 10% VFX-RELATED BONUS AVAILABLE UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS.

HOW TO GET THE TRIP?

To get the TRIP, you have to work with a French Production Service Company, (which can be a VFX studio or another French company).
The French company will file the application for your project and submit it to the CNC. Provided you get approval, expenditures are eligible from the day of submission. Provisional qualification is generally given within a month of submission.

HOW TO QUALIFY?

To qualify to the TRIP as a VFX-only project, your project must:

  • be a live-action project (feature, shortfilm, series – single or more episodes, VR), with at least 15% of the shots or an average of one and a half shots per minute of the film are digitally processed

  • spend at least €250K in eligible expenditures (live-action shoots, as well as post-production expenditures and all VFX-related spend in France are eligible, see the full list below)
  • pass a cultural test specifically designed for VFX projects provided you spend more than 50% of the French expenditures on VFX-related works, including post-production (VFX-related works being addition of characters, visual elements or  objects involved in the action, modification of the rendering of a scene or the camera’s point of view)

If less than 50% of your French expenditures is dedicated to VFX-related works, your project can be qualified to the TRIP as a live action project. In that case too, all the VFX expenditures will also be eligible and get the tax rebate.
The only difference is that the project will have to pass the "live action cultural test" and to shoot at least 5 days (that can also include green screen, motion cap and second unit shoot) in France.

HOW TO GET THE 10% VFX BONUS (AND THEREFORE 40% TAX REBATE ON ALL ELIGIBLE SPENDS)?

The 10% bonus applies to VFX-intensive projects with more than €2M of VFX-related eligible French expenditure. Once the €2M threshold is passed, the 40% tax rebate applies on all of a project’s eligible spends, including live action spends which are not VFX-related.

VFX-related spends are expenses carried out by a service provider established in France and related to digital processing of shots allowing the addition of characters, decorative elements or objects participating in the action, or modifying the rendering of the scene, or the camera point of view.

The bonus is only available to VFX-only projects and live action projects including a substantial amount of VFX. Animation projects don’t qualify for the bonus.

THE CULTURAL TEST FOR VFX PROJECTS

In order to qualify, VFX-only projects must pass the “VFX test” which is made up of three distinctive parts.

The first part rewards points for characters of either European or an undetermined origin (monsters, non-humanoids or animals meet this requirement).

The second part rewards points according to the level of involvement of French and European talents.

The third part looks at the involvement of French companies in the projects.

The test is therefore easy to pass for any VFX project that is substantially made in France. Marvel’s “Thor”, Wong Kar-Wai’s “The Grandmaster”, David Lynch’s new “Twin Peaks” series or Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049” all qualified for the TRIP Incentive.

The scope of interpretation is wide and it opens the door to a lot of projects. Give it a try: contact us 

 

QUALIFYING EXPENDITURES

To be eligible, expenditures mentioned hereafter must be incurred in France by the Production Service Company who has submitted the TRIP application for the project. Concerning VFX projects, most of the spend is eligible, as you can see.
The tax rebate is 30% of the following pre-tax expenditures and maximum €30 million per project :

  • Salaries paid to French or EU direction and production staff (wages and incidentals) including the related social contributions (French payslips) (NO CAP).
  • Animation & VFX team members (NO CAP).
  • Expenditures incurred to specialized companies for technical goods and services based in France (including VFX / Animation / Post-production facilities).
  • Renting locations (non-classified residences are not eligible) and constructing sets.
  • Accommodation, catering, transport of materials and travel of cast and crew.
  • Wages of actors are capped at the minimum set in the relevant collective bargaining agreements

For more information on the Tax Rebate for International Production, please visit the CNC website

 

Photography: Mystères à la Tour Eiffel, ©Thalie Images, VFX by Trimaran VFX