Montana offers a media credit for certain costs of qualifying film, television, and other media productions

Pre-Certification with the Department of Commerce

First, production companies must be registered with the office of the Montana Secretary of State. Productions should register at least 7 to 10 days before applying.

Before production begins, productions must apply for pre-certification with the Montana Department of Commerce Film Office.

Media Credit Application with the Department of Revenue

To claim the MEDIA credit, productions must apply with the Department of Revenue. The “submission of costs” must be submitted within 60 days of principal photography for the credit to be available in the year of production; otherwise, the credit will be pushed back one year. In addition, as part of the application, a CPA report is due by April 15 of the year following the year of production.

Media Credit Cap

The total amount of tax credits claimed by all productions cannot exceed $10 million in any calendar year:

If the full amount of credit is not utilized, then the remaining credit is not carried forward. For example, if only $5 million of the credit is used in a tax year, the remaining $5 million does not get carried forward to the following tax year.

However, excess validated credit is pushed to the following year. For example, if a production earns $15 million dollars of credit in Year One and the cap has already been reached, the excess credit can be taken in Year Two.

Priority

For purposes of determining priority, priority is based on when the production company submits a complete application, which includes the “submission of costs, CPA report, and application fee.”

The Montana Department of Commerce Montana Film Office has more information, instructions on registering with the Montana Secretary of State and applying for pre-certification. To calculate the credit based on potential expenditures and labor costs visit the Montana Film Office Credit Estimate Calculator. This is only an estimate for your purposes.

The credit includes a 20 percent income tax credit on pre-production, production, and post-production expenditures in the state. Additional incentives can increase the credit up to 35 percent of the production’s base investment in the tax year.

These per production, additional incentives include:

• 25% of compensation for Montana resident crew
• 15% of compensation for non-Montana resident crew
• 20% of above-the-line compensation (actor, director, producer, writer)
• 30% of compensation paid to a student enrolled in a MT college/university who works on the production for college credit
• 10% of payments to MT colleges/universities for stage, equipment, rentals, or location fees for filming on campus
• 10% of all in-studio facility/equipment expenditures that rents a studio for 20 days or more
• 5% of expenditures in an underserved county
• 5% for using “Film MONTANA” screen credit
• 25% of post-production wages (Effective Jan. 1, 2021)