Nothing is certain but death and taxes. Which means, every tax season, all the filmmakers I know are stressing as they try to round up 1099s and figure out all their deductions for the year. Hopefully, these fee tax education resources will make this April a little (or a lot) easier.
We’ve also included information about where to film your movie to get the biggest tax incentives.
What is a Tax Write-Off?
Let’s start with the basics. If you’re totally new to taxes and aren’t sure where to get started with write-offs, check out this Turbotax tutorial on what, exactly, a write-off is. It will help you understand what the standard deduction is, what types of things can be written off, and some trickier tax deduction.
Understanding tax deductions for filmmakers
Oka, now let’s get a little more specific. You know what a write-off is, but do you understand what types of things are deductible for filmmakers? If not, this is the article for you. There’s also a short video version of the article at the end, in case you’re more of an audio learner.
Tax secrets with CPA Russell Hand
This podcast is a treasure trove of good information for filmmakers. I usually would say that I don’t want to listen to an hour long podcast about taxes, but listen… if it will save me some money come April, I’m actually ALL about it. Tax secrets for filmmakers? With an actual CPA? Yes, please.
Self Employment Tax Tips
Turbotax has created this list of self employment tax tips that I found SO helpful. Do you understand tax liability? What about how to report all your income when you worked a lot of different gigs?
Freelancer’s Tax Guide
Is this your first year doing your taxes as a freelancer? Do you want to know where to get started? This tax guide from US Bank covers a broad range of topics, from important dates to necessary forms to how to save for retirement as a freelancer.
Tax incentives by state
Did you know that where you film your movie matters in terms of write-offs or rebates? Here is a list of the film industry tax incentives by state. If you’re filming in the US, this is an invaluable resource. Read carefully, because many states have a project minimum that makes tax incentives inaccessible to indie filmmakers, but some of them have great options for lower budget projects!
Ten best states for film tax incentives
If you don’t want to comb through all fifty, here are the ten states with the best tax incentives for filmmakers.
Countries with the best tax incentives
Okay, what if you go international? THEN where is the best place to film your movie? In unrelated news, I’m available to travel to Fiji for film work. You know where to find me.
I hope this list of tax resources for filmmakers was helpful! I know I’m feeling wayyyy less intimidated about doing my taxes now… plus I have an excuse to plan a trip to Fiji, so it’s a win/win.
Happy filming!
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