An interactive map of every US film tax credit, rebate, cap, minimum spend, and payroll fringe rate. All 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico.
U.S. film and television production incentives return between 15% and 45% of qualified spend to producers, with 39 states plus D.C. and Puerto Rico running active programs as of 2026. The rate you see quoted in a press release is rarely the rate you actually earn.
The modern U.S. film incentive landscape traces to Louisiana's Motion Picture Tax Incentive Act of 2002, which responded to Canadian provinces that had been pulling studio production north for a decade. Within five years, thirty-plus states had followed: some with sustainable programs, many with ones that collapsed under fiscal pressure. The programs that survived (Georgia, Louisiana, New York, New Mexico, Massachusetts) are the ones that stabilized around a clear economic logic: every dollar returned to the producer is supposed to generate more than a dollar of local wage and vendor spend.
That math is why the headline rate never tells the whole story. A 30% refundable credit in a state with a $300K minimum spend, a deep crew base, and an uncapped annual pool is worth materially more than a 40% transferable credit in a state with a $5M cap that exhausted in the first quarter. The refundability determines how fast you turn the credit into cash; the cap determines whether your project even gets allocation; and the local crew depth determines whether you're flying in enough above-the-line and below-the-line to wipe out the rate savings in per diem and travel.
Most programs are stackable. A base rate of 20% might stack a 5% resident-labor bonus, a 5% rural-location bonus, a 5% qualified-facility bonus, and a 5% veteran-hiring bonus, producing realistic top-line rates of 35%+. The stacks are not automatic. Each uplift has specific qualification criteria that need to be designed into the schedule and the crew list before principal photography starts.
The fringe environment matters almost as much as the rate. Payroll burden (payroll taxes, pension & health contributions, workers' compensation, and statutory insurance) typically lands between 22% and 34% on top of gross wages. A state with a 30% rate and 33% fringe is economically different from a state with a 25% rate and 22% fringe once you multiply through the labor line of a budget.
Each jurisdiction has its own dedicated brief below, with the operational details producers actually need (refundability, caps, minimum spend, comp caps, uplift stacks) and the payroll fringe context. The map above is for comparison at a glance; the per-state pages are the references you read before the first production meeting.
Every U.S. program is a variation on one of these five mechanisms. The type determines how quickly you turn the credit into cash, what paperwork you sign, and how much the discount will cost you at broker.
The state cuts a check regardless of whether the production company owes state tax. Payout arrives after a final certified audit, typically 6 to 18 months after wrap. Clean, predictable, and the easiest to model into a capital stack.
The credit can be sold to a third-party taxpayer, typically a bank or insurance company with large state liability. Discounts run 88 to 95 cents on the dollar. Brokers clear within 30 to 90 days, making it the fastest route to working capital.
Applies only against the production company's own state tax liability. Single-project LLCs rarely have the liability to absorb it, so these credits require structuring through a production services company or parent studio.
Not a credit at all. The state sends a rebate check from a dedicated appropriation after the production is certified. Operationally similar to a refundable credit, but paid against the state's discretionary budget rather than its tax apparatus.
Funded through a specific agency appropriation and allocated competitively. Applications are scored and approved in advance of production. Requires the most pre-production paperwork but can be combined with separate state tax credits for hybrid coverage.
Every U.S. jurisdiction has its own page with the headline rate, caps, fringe, official film office, and editorial context. Tap any state to open the full brief.
A 30% credit on $8M of qualified spend reduces your effective capital requirement by $2.4M, but only if the credit is refundable, sold at a sensible discount, or applied against a parent entity's liability. Our free film waterfall calculator models how each incentive flows back through distribution fees, P&A recoupment, deferrals, and profit participation so you can see the landed number your investors actually earn.
Open the Film Waterfall CalculatorNew to incentives? Read our producer's guide to choosing the right state.