Posts tagged as:

film tax credit

New Orleans Saints Players Involved in Tax Credit Loss

July 5, 2009 · 0 comments

As previously blogged, film tax credits may be popular in many states, but in Louisiana, there are at least 27 members of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints who are not yet ready for their close up.

A number of people associated with the team including Kevin Houser, Drew Brees, Sean Payton, Archie Manning (dad to Peyton and Elijah), Charles Grant, Mitch Berger and Jeremy Shockey made investments totaling nearly $2 million by purchasing state film industry tax credits from Louisiana Film Studios. The studios boasts such projects as Meet the Spartans (2008, with Carmen Electra, Method Man and Sean Maguire), Cirque du Freak (2010 release, with Sean Reilly, Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe and Jane Krakowski), The Expendables (2010 release, with Sylvester Stallone and Jet Li) and Dead of Night (2009, with Taye Diggs and Jason Routh) on their web site.

The investments were to be used as part of an expansion of the film studios, providing more than 500,000 square feet of space for movie sets, soundstages and other film production work. Those who invested in the expansion were expecting a return on their investment in the expansion after tax credits were obtained by the company.

The problem? Louisiana Film Studios never made application to the state of Louisiana for the credits. According to the director of the Office of Entertainment Industry Development, “They never submitted the required documents to receive tax credits.”

Is it a scheme or just bad judgment? Law investment officials have been reportedly been asking questions about the investments but the FBI has refused to “confirm or deny” their involvement. In the meantime, at least one of the players, Kevin Houser, is considering legal action against the company.

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Fix the Tax Code Friday: Tax Breaks for Investments

June 5, 2009 · 5 comments

It’s Fix the Tax Code Friday! Yesterday, I blogged about NC’s efforts to woo Apple and Google to the Tarheel state by passing corporate tax breaks directed at each of them. This is nothing new. In my own state of Pennsylvania, a new film tax credit is being touted in an effort to bring more filmmakers to the area. Similar programs have also been created in parts of Canada, like Vancouver, to attract moviemakers up the coast and away from California.

And sometimes the credits are not so much about attracting a company as keeping it from going (see almost every professional sports team stadium in the US).

The idea behind these tax credits is that bringing industry will create jobs. Those jobs will result in the need for more local services. And voila, it’s a ripple effect. But that doesn’t always happen. And when it does happen, it’s not always at the level that the lawmakers had hoped.

But sometimes it does work.

So today’s “Fix the Tax Code Friday” question is:

Are tax breaks targeted towards keeping or attracting certain companies worth it? And if so, does it matter that the individual taxpayers may have to pick up the slack through increased tax rates or decreased services in the short term if the plan is for increased revenue to the state (or locality) in the long term?

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