ESD cites tax credit for increase in post-production hiring in New York

A year after a “strengthened” post-production tax credit went into effect, new data indicates the tax incentive has led to an increase of, on average, 25 percent in hiring in the industry in New York.

The Post New York Alliance (PNYA), headquartered in New York City, compiled the data that Empire State Development (ESD), New York’s primary economic-development agency, released on Thursday.

The PNYA is an association of film and television post-production facilities and labor unions operating in New York.

The data indicates 173 new hires since this time in 2012, according to ESD. It is estimated that the uptick in new post-production business will generate nearly $70 million in new spending in New York, the agency said.

In the last year, post-production companies reported spending nearly $18 million to expand and purchase new equipment to accommodate the increase in business demand, ESD said.

The post-production credit is a fully-refundable 30 percent (35 percent for upstate New York) tax credit on post-production costs, according to the website of PNYA. The “main determining factor” is that a project must spend 75 percent of the post-production costs in New York, the website says.

This program differs from the existing production tax credit in that it is for projects that did not necessarily shoot in New York, due to any number of reasons. But this tax credit provides incentive for the project to handle post-production duties in New York, according to the PNYA website.

Gov. Cuomo signed the law last July.

Post-production includes all of the editing after filming is complete, along with visual effects, color correction, sound editing, and mixing, according to ESD. The industry also includes other jobs, such as engineers, messengers, and creative and support staff.

State lawmakers “strengthened” the tax credit to specifically focus on attracting post-production work to communities around New York, ESD said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com