Georgia Film Tax Credit (Entertainment Industry Investment Act)

Georgia Film Tax Credit (Entertainment Industry Investment Act)

Offers transferable tax credits for qualifying film and media productions meeting minimum spend thresholds in Georgia.

Eligibility · United States · US-GA

Georgia's Entertainment Industry Investment Act, commonly known as the Georgia Film Tax Credit, is a transferable state tax credit program administered by the Georgia Film Office under the Georgia Department of Economic Development. It provides a 20% tax credit on qualified in-state production expenditures, with an additional 10% uplift available to productions that include a Georgia promotional placement — typically the state's promotional logo — embedded in the content. The program carries no annual aggregate cap on total credits issued and has no sunset clause, making it an ongoing statutory incentive rather than a competitive grant round.

To qualify, a production company must incur at least $500,000 in qualified Georgia expenditures per tax year; this threshold may be met by a single project or aggregated across multiple projects produced by the same company within a single tax year. Eligible project types include live-action and animated feature films, television films, pilots, and series, commercials, and music videos. After credits are certified by the Georgia Film Office, they may be sold or transferred to one or more Georgia taxpayers, making them attractive to studios and independent producers alike who may not carry sufficient Georgia tax liability to use the credits directly.

Application timing is tied to each production's photography schedule, not an annual deadline: projects under $100 million must apply no earlier than 120 days before principal photography begins and no later than 7 calendar days after photography starts; projects over $100 million have a 180-day early window. A mandatory audit, performed by the Georgia Department of Revenue or a GDOR-approved CPA firm, is required for certification, and audit costs are excluded from the credit calculation. Productions seeking the 30% combined rate should ensure the promotional placement meets Georgia Film Office specifications before principal photography wraps.