Personal income tax and corporation tax: Equitable Opportunities Film Credit.

The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws, including credits, in specified percentages, to a qualified taxpayer for qualified expenditures for the production of a qualified motion picture in California (film credits) . Existing law, under the film credits, permits a qualified taxpayer to receive 25% of the qualified expenditures attributable to the production of a qualified motion picture that is an independent film, with a total limit of up to $10,000,000. Existing law provides additional credits, among other credits, for the production of a qualified motion picture in California, as specified, that is in its 2nd or subsequent years of receiving a tax credit allocation, in an aggregate amount not to exceed 5% of the qualified expenditures of that motion picture relating to original photography outside of the Los Angeles zone, as defined. Existing law also provides additional credits, among other additional credits, for the production of those same qualified motion pictures in an amount equal to 10% of qualified wages paid for services performed relating to original photography outside of the Los Angeles zone to qualified individuals who reside in the state but outside the Los Angeles zone. Existing law authorizes a qualified taxpayer to sell any of the film credits attributable to an independent film. This bill would permit a qualified taxpayer to receive up to 40% of the qualified expenditures attributable to the production of a qualified motion picture that is an independent minority film, as defined, with a total limit of up to $30,000,000. The bill, among other things, would provide additional credits for specified independent minority films for qualified expenditures relating to original photography in the state and qualified wages paid for services performed relating to original photography in the state to qualified individuals who reside in the state. The bill would also authorize a qualified taxpayer to sell any of the film credits attributable to an independent minority film. The bill would require an applicant with a production that is an independent minority film to include, in its application for the film credits to the California Film Commission, certain information relating to the applicant's voluntary programs to increase the representation of minorities and women in the job classifications that are not included in qualified wages. The bill would also increase the aggregate amount of credits that may be allocated, commencing with the 2021–22 fiscal year, and each fiscal year thereafter, through and including the 2024–25 fiscal year, under the film credits by $200,000,000, and would make these credits exclusively available to independent minority films. This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIIIA of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 23 of the membership of each house of the Legislature. This bill would take effect immediately as a tax levy.