Louisiana Production Incentives

Submit an application for initial certification to the Louisiana Economic Development (LED) using FASTLANE, along with an application fee that is equal to 0.5% of the estimated tax credit but not less than $500 or more than $15,000; meet the minimum in-state spending requirement of more than $300,000; production companies organized as a corporation must be incorporated in Louisiana while all other entity types must be domiciled and headquartered in Louisiana. All payments for services performed in Louisiana are subject to withholding based upon a withholding certificate—if no certificate is provided, the withholding rate is 3%. All payments made to a loan out company are subject to 3% withholding.

Qualified spend includes: the first $3 million paid to each resident, nonresident, and loan out for work performed in Louisiana; costs for tangible goods acquired from a source within the state during preproduction, production, and postproduction of a state-certified production; costs expended up to one year prior to and two years after initial certification. Qualifying production expenditures for above-the-line salaries of unrelated and related parties are limited to 40% and 12%, respectively, of total Louisiana expenditures.

Applications received by LED will be reviewed and evaluated on the 15th of each month. Claims submitted to the Louisiana Department of Revenue are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. Louisiana’s base incentive provides for a tax credit equal to 25% of base investment. Additional incentives may be earned as follows: 15% of the first $3 million of each resident’s wage; 5% of ALL base investment by placing the production office and filming 60% of principal photography outside the New Orleans Metro-Statistical Area; 10% in the base investment rate for expenditures of at least $50,000 but not greater than $5 million for productions based on a screenplay created by a Louisiana resident; 5% of visual effects expenditures if certain requirements are met. The maximum aggregate base investment rate is limited to 40%. LED assigns a CPA to conduct an expenditure verification report. There is a per project cap of $20 million for a single state-certified production or $25 million per season for scripted episodic content. Payouts may structure over two or more years, at LED’s discretion. The maximum amount of tax credits issued by the film office is limited to $150 million per fiscal year. This program is scheduled to sunset June 30, 2031. Please refer to governing statutes for more details.