British Columbia

Submit an application online for pre-certification with Creative BC within 120 days of incurring the first qualifying labor expenditure in BC; be a taxable Canadian entity; have a permanent establishment in BC; be primarily in the business of film or video production; own the production’s copyright during the production period or have a direct contract with the copyright’s owner; submit a Production Services Tax Credit Program (PSTC) application along with an administration fee of CAD 10,000 (plus GST) to Creative BC to receive an Accreditation Certification letter, which must be submitted to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), along with all other records, within 18 months from the project’s taxable yearend—the CRA will not process claims that are filed late; and meet the TGMS of more than CAD 100,000 (approximately USD 74,000) per episode for episodes or pilots that are less than 30 minutes, or more than CAD 200,000 per episode for those that are 30 minutes or longer. In all other production cases, the TGMS is more than CAD 1 million. For the Digital Animation, Visual Effects, and postproduction (DAVE) credit, more than 50% of the effect must have been created using digital technology.

Qualified spend includes amounts incurred by a corporation in BC from the final script stage to the end of postproduction including: salaries or wages paid to BC residents during the year or within 60 days after the end of the taxable year; and payments for services to BC individuals, Canadian taxable corporations (loan out companies, proprietorships, partnerships, and personal service corporations) for services provided by BC residents that are attributable to the production. If a pre-certification form is not submitted within 120 days, production companies are unable to claim any labor expenditures incurred prior to the filing date of the pre-certification form.

This program is administered on a first-come, first-served basis. British Columbia’s PSTC Program offers four distinct labor-based tax credits which, if the production qualifies, may be combined: Basic (Resident Labor), Regional, Distant, and DAVE. The production must be eligible for the basic credit in order to access the Regional, Distant, or DAVE credits. Production companies may earn a refundable tax credit equal to 28% of qualified BC labor plus an additional 6% of eligible labor for each of the following: (1) filming more than 50% of BC principal photography (PP) and a minimum of five days outside the designated Vancouver area (Regional); (2) filming at least one day of BC principal photography at a distant location as defined (Distant). The production must be eligible for the Regional credit in order to access the Distant credit. Both the Regional and Distant credits are prorated by the number of PP days in the required area over the total number of PP days done in BC. Production companies may also earn the DAVE credit equal to an additional 16% of qualified BC labor that is directly attributable to digital animation, visual effects, or postproduction activities.