Self-Aggrandizement: 502

A few years ago, concerned about the number of film shoots heading up to Canada, the US Congress included a smart provision in the Jobs Creation Act, Section 181, which made investing in independent films in the US a 100% tax write-off until dollar back.

This should have been huge. But because Congress did a really terrible job of informing the film industry about the change, it didn't seem to have much impact. At least until just recently, when in the last year or two some of us in the indie film finance world started to catch on. And, just when we did, we also discovered that the provision was set to expire at the end of this year.

At Sundance last year, our VP of Finance, Alex Burns, spent some time saying as much, while on a panel about film finance. Then, at a party that evening, he ran into several folks from the MPAA.

"Oh," they said. "Cyan Pictures. You guys are the ones leading the push to extend Section 181, right?"

To which Alex responded, "uh... absolutely."

So that's how we got tied, unintentionally, into congressional lobbying. And that's also why I nearly wet my pants with excitement when I learned that, tucked deep into last week's bail-out bill, way in on page 298, was Section 502., Provisions Related to Film and Television Productions.

Not only does that provision extend the 181 write-off for another year, it also includes clarifying language that makes explicitly permissible some of the more arcane tax structure stuff we've been doing here at Cyan over the past 18 months.

Which is good, because, as one of our attorneys said at the time, it's the kind of stuff you want to discuss carefully now, lest you get to discuss it for three to five years later on.

502 Filed Tuesday, October 7 2008.

502
Filed Tuesday, October 7 2008.