Thursday, January 16, 2014

Hollywood is Chasing Taxing Cold River

Reitz is one of Hollywood’s new financiers. Just about every major movie filmed on location gets a tax incentive, and Reitz is part of an expanding web of brokers, tax attorneys, financial planners and consultants who help filmmakers exploit the patchwork of state programs to attract film and TV production.
In his case, he takes the tax credits given to Hollywood studios for location filming and sells them to wealthy Georgians looking to shave their tax bills — doctors, pro athletes, seafood suppliers, beer distributors and the like.
Hollywood financing and locations of Cold River

Money for Hollywood, fixers, middlemen, and the well-connected, at your expense.  Sort of like every other “economic development” tax credit, only even more so.  Fortunately Iowa, sadder but wiser, has turned to jailing film folks instead of subsidizing them.