Film Rebate

Section 40-7A-43 authorizes the Alabama Film Office to award up to $20 million each year in incentives to qualified production companies. Qualified Productions include a wide variety of entertainment content, provided that some portion of the project is produced in Alabama. Qualified Productions include motion pictures, soundtracks for motion pictures, documentaries, most television programming (except those exclusively for news, weather, sports or financial market reports), sound recordings, videos and music videos, commercials and video games.

The Alabama Film Office will review applications to establish the eligibility for this tax credit. Once the eligibility is established, the credit is claimed via My Alabama Taxes (MAT). Please see the bottom of this page for further details on MAT.

Alabama Film Rebate Incentives include:

• Income Tax Rebate – Equaling 25% of certain production expenditures on the project that are incurred in Alabama plus 35% of the payroll paid to Alabama residents. The rebate may be used to offset any Alabama income tax liability of the Qualified Production Company for the tax year during which such expenditures were paid or incurred. If the amount of the Rebate exceeds the Qualified Production Company’s Alabama income tax liability, then the excess is refundable.
• State Sales, Use, and Lodging Tax Exemption – A Qualified Production Company that intends to spend certain qualified expenditures in Alabama may be entitled to receive an exemption from the state portion of sales, use, and lodgings taxes. The exemption only applies to the state portion, however – not to the local portion of those taxes. An Alabama Department of Revenue exemption certificate must be presented to Alabama vendors to utilize the exemption.

All qualifying film projects approved by the Alabama Film Office are required to file a Certificate of Compliance issued by the Alabama Department of Revenue before any rebate is released for payment. For details on how to obtain a Certificate of Compliance, please click here.

The Alabama Film Office within the Alabama Department of Commerce is the administering agency for these incentives; therefore, all inquiries regarding the qualifications for these incentives should be addressed to the Alabama Film Office.