IL, Kansas City offer film tax incentives. A St. Louis director says Missouri should, too
Several Midwest locations, including Kansas City and Illinois, offer monetary incentives to filmmakers to encourage local production, but Missouri’s credit expired a decade ago.
Josh Guffey, writer and director of “All Gone Wrong,” which releases Jan. 27, chose to make his movie in the metro-east and St. Louis because he loves the area and didn’t want to be far from home.
The region doesn’t attract a plethora of projects, however.
Government-funded filming incentives are available in nearby areas, including Kansas City and Illinois, drawing in TV shows such as Chicago Fire and Euphoria, as well as many movies.
Kansas City’s local film rebate incentive offers up to a 10% rebate for qualifying projects. Funds are given on a first-come, first-served basis, and there is a $50 application fee.
Certain productions are ineligible for the program, including:
Projects with ratings above “R” or “TV-MA”
News or current events programming
Talk shows
Sports event or sports programs
Gala presentation or award shows
Infomercials or any productions that directly solicit funds
Political ads
The state of Illinois also offers an incentive for filmmakers. The Illinois General Assembly passed the Illinois Film Production Tax Credit Act in 2008. It is scheduled for legislative renewal in 2026 and will be renewable in five-year increments in the future.
The Illinois film services tax credit offers:
30% of qualified Illinois production spending
30% credit on Illinois salaries (up to $500,000 per worker)
30% of non-resident labor up to $500,000 per worker in the positions of director, writer, director of photography, production designer, costume designer, production accountant, VFX supervisor, editor, composer and actor for work performed in Illinois. For qualified productions spending $25 million or less, no more than two non-resident actors qualify. For qualified productions spending $25 million or more, no more than four non-resident actors qualify. For a television series, qualifying non-resident wages are limited to the entire season.
Applicants can receive an additional 15% tax credit on salaries of individuals (making at least $1,000 in total wages) who live in “economically disadvantaged” areas whose unemployment rate is at least 150% of the state’s annual average.
Missouri’s state film tax incentive expired in 2013, but a state representative has filed a bill to fill the void.
The “Show MO Act” would provide a tax credit equal to 20% of qualifying expenses associated with the production of a qualified motion media production project.
Missouri is a great candidate for a government-funded filming incentive, Guffey said, and enticing directors to make movies there would drive local business.
“All the reasons why Atlanta and Chicago and the states they’re in, why they benefited from these incentives, all of those conditions are present here in St. Louis and Missouri and Kansas City,” Guffey said. “It feels very obvious to someone like me in the industry, but it’s proven to be a hard sell to politicians.”
Guffey said some of the factors making it difficult to pass a state film incentive in Missouri are budget constraints and politics.
“Plus, the industry is considered pretty left-leaning and this is now a pretty red state so I think it can be kind of difficult to make that case even though it is a business case, which I think they would be open to,” Guffey added.
State Rep. LaDonna Appelbaum, who filed House Bill 2473 (the Show MO Act), said in a January 2022 statement the bill would help draw business to Missouri.
“Our state misses out on dozens of productions to states like Georgia, which offers massive tax credits to companies that produce films, television series, and commercials,” Appelbaum said. “Even a show like Ozark that takes place in Missouri’s own Lake of the Ozarks is mostly filmed in Atlanta. The ‘Show MO Act’ will help make Missouri competitive with other states in capturing business we would not otherwise receive.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 2:52 PM.
