S 5030 New Jersey Senate · 2024-2025 Regular Session

Modifies certain requirements of film and digital media content production tax credit program; modifies criteria for purchase of certain tax credit transfer certificates administered by Division of Taxation.

This bill modifies New Jersey's film and digital media tax credit program. It lowers the base credit rate for most film producers from 35% to 30% of eligible production costs, while adding a new requirement that digital media credits (up to 40%) must be earned by spending on vendors primarily located in specific New Jersey counties. The bill also adjusts digital media credit rules to exclude qualified wage payments from eligible expenses and requires producers to include "Filmed in New Jersey" credits in final film credits. These changes directly affect film and digital content producers seeking tax credits under the program.
Sub-Topics: Tax Credits
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 6, 2026 Last action Jan 12, 2026
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What changed between versions

Introduced Version → Reprint SBA 1/8/26 1R · 8 edits
MODERATE
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee made several substantive amendments to New Jersey's film tax credit program. Key changes include removing the 'feature film' restriction for the highest tier of studio partner credits (now available for any film type at $125M+ in expenses), adding a 36,000 square foot minimum space requirement for film-lease partner facility leases, expanding recapture protections to cover credits already awarded for productions with complete initial applications, and allowing fund-owned entities to qualify under the film-lease production company definition.
ELIGIBILITY

Removed the 'feature film' limitation from the $125M+ studio partner tier, so the additional credit (up to $72M for writers, directors, producers, and performers) now applies to any type of film production, not just feature films.

Added fund-owned entities to the definition of New Jersey film-lease production company: a company may now include 'any other entity in which a fund has a material ownership interest if the film-lease production company is materially owned by the fund.'

REQUIREMENT

Added a requirement that leases of New Jersey film-lease partner facilities must include at least 36,000 square feet of gross rentable space, in addition to the existing three-year minimum term. This applies to both the revocation trigger and the lease requirements for film-lease production companies.

ENFORCEMENT

Expanded recapture protections: the authority can now only 'recapture or reduce the portion of' tax credits available solely by virtue of a designation, and explicitly cannot touch credits awarded for any film production for which an initial application was already submitted and deemed complete. This applies to studio partners, film-lease production companies, and film-lease post-production companies.

Changed the revocation trigger for film-lease partner facilities from 'five or more successive years' to 'at least five years,' removing the 'successive' requirement and making it easier for the authority to revoke a designation after a facility fails to operate properly.

DEFINITION

Added a cross-reference stating that a three-year lease described in the definition of New Jersey film-lease production company automatically satisfies the three-year lease requirement in the definition of New Jersey film-lease post-production company.

Added 'insurance premiums' to the list of items included in the total qualified film production expenses when calculating the 7.5 percent cap on out-of-state producer fees, rights fees, and related costs for studio partners and film-lease production companies.

FISCAL

Deleted the provision stating that script costs for studio partners and film-lease production companies 'shall be in addition to the amounts paid to highly compensated individuals and the additional amounts paid to highly compensated individuals,' removing a clarification about how script costs interact with the highly compensated individual cap.

Floor votes

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
4
Key actions
1
Committee
2
Jan 8, 2026
Upper · Passed
Reported out of Senate Committee with Amendments, 2nd Reading
upper
Jan 6, 2026
Committee
Transferred to Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee
upper
Jan 6, 2026
Introduced
Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Economic Growth Committee
upper
2 primary · 1 co-sponsor

Sponsors