The Board also heard from the State of Tennessee about proposed legislation (HB0141/SB0736) designed to attract multimedia production and projects to the state. EDGE provided its support for the bill, which is currently in committee.
The bill creates a point of purchase sales and uses tax exemption on the purchase of personal property and taxable services used in qualified productions and a franchise and excise tax credit based on labor and talent spend. The legislation provides more accountability and oversight than the previous entertainment tax incentive.
The state said that several high-profile productions have approached Tennessee about filming in recent years but chose out-of-state filming locations due to a less competitive incentive offer, including “The Blindside”; “Heart Strings”, a Netflix series produced by Dolly Parton; “EMPIRE”, Season 3; and “The Walking Dead”, Season 3; to name a few.
Since 2007, the Tennessee Film, Entertainment, and Music Commission have incentivized 68 productions, recruiting 7,300 new full-time jobs and totaling $655 million in economic output.
