Georgia film tax incentive

What Georgia actually pays

A credit you can sell to a company that owes tax in the state. You rarely get face value — expect a broker discount — so model the net, not the headline.

New to the mechanics? Tax credit vs rebate vs grant, Selling a transferable credit and What counts as qualified spend.

What qualifies

Project must be a Feature Film, Television Film/MOW, Series (per season/episode), Pilot, Commercial Advertisement, Music Video, or Interactive Entertainment project certified by GDEcD, and produced in whole or in part (at least one day of qualified production activity) in Georgia. Must meet $500,000 minimum base investment in qualified GA expenditures (single project or aggregate across projects in a tax year). Must be intended for Multimarket Commercial Distribution. Development-phase expenses do not qualify; project must have entered preproduction. Ineligible: news, sports, talk shows, instructional/corporate/industrial content, website development, place-based media, and projects primarily post-production in nature. Loan-out and 1099 payments require GA withholding to qualify.

• Pilot
• Animation
• Commercial
• Miniseries
• Music Video
• Scripted TV
• Feature Film
• Streaming / SVOD
• Video Game / Interactive

Other state programs

Separate incentives Georgiaruns alongside the headline program. Each has its own base, rules and application — the rates here are the programs' own, not additions to the rate above.

• Interactive Entertainment (Video Game) Tax Credit

  +10% GEP uplift for embedding the Georgia logo (15 sec aggregate in units sold + up to 3-sec online adjacency)

  Minimum spend: $250,000 minimum aggregate GA payroll (QIEPC); company gross income must be under $100M

  20%–30%

How to apply

1) Apply to GDEcD for Base Tax Credit certification electronically (project must be Fully Funded — 75% of budget documented). Window: not earlier than 120 days before Principal Photography start (180 days if budget over $100M) and no later than 7 days after PP start. 2) Elect GEP uplift at time of completed application if pursuing the extra 10%. 3) Register with GDOR (Georgia Tax Center) for loan-out withholding and income tax accounts. 4) File Georgia Expenditures Report within 90 days of last GA spend. 5) Request the mandatory Film Tax Credit Audit through GDOR (required for all projects since 1/1/2023). Certified credits may then be claimed or sold/transferred to a Georgia taxpayer.

Common questions

What is the Georgia film tax incentive rate?

Georgia offers 20% to 30% on qualified in-state spend through the Entertainment Industry Investment Act. It is a transferable credit. A credit you can sell to a company that owes tax in the state. You rarely get face value — expect a broker discount — so model the net, not the headline.

What is the minimum spend for the Georgia film incentive?

$500,000 qualified GA spend (per project or aggregate across projects in a tax year). Falling under the minimum is a total loss of the benefit, not a partial one — it is worth confirming the threshold before locking a budget.

Is the Georgia film incentive transferable or refundable?

Transferable — the credit can be sold, typically below face value, so model the net rather than the headline rate.

Verify before you budget. These figures come from our own incentives database and each shows when it was last reviewed — but programs change between funding cycles and legislative sessions. Confirm with the film office, or ask us, before a number goes into a budget.