TAXING CLOSING TAX LOOPHOLES CUTTING TAX EXPENDITURES ON HOLLYWOOD: Dave Hardy emails:
Check out the Domestic Production Activities Deduction (§199), created by the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. It classifies moviemaking as a production activity, and gives a tax credit for it (I think 9% or half of salaries paid, whichever is less). (Might PajamasTV qualify, I dunno). Hollywood thus gets a special tax credit of its own, on the theory (which Hollywood types would reject if applied to anyone else) that reducing taxes increases employment.
Plus lots of States give tax credits for the same. I know Arizona does. And often they’re transferable, so that if Disney films in AZ but doesn’t pay taxes here, it can sell the tax credit to someone who does.
Seems like Tea Party folks should push the elimination of these kinds of tax breaks for rich people, at both the federal and state levels. You know, consistent with the President’s rhetoric . . . .