§ 2–1204.11. Film, Television and Entertainment Rebate Fund.

(a)(1) There is established as a special fund the Film, Television and Entertainment Rebate Fund (“Fund”). The Fund shall appear as a separate program line within the budget of the Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment. The Fund shall be funded by annual appropriations.

(2)(A) The money deposited into the Fund, and interest earned, shall not revert to the unrestricted fund balance of the General Fund of the District of Columbia at the end of a fiscal year, or at any other time.

(B) Subject to authorization in an approved budget and financial plan, any funds appropriated in the Fund shall be continually available without regard to fiscal year limitation.

(b) Subject to §§ 2-1204.11a, 2-1204.11c, and 2-1204.12 and subject to the availability of funds, the Mayor may provide to an eligible production company, as an incentive for the production of movies, television shows, or other video productions in the District, a payment up to the following:

(1) The sum of 35% of the company’s qualified production expenditures that are subject to taxation in the District;

(2) The sum of 21% of the company’s qualified production expenditures that are not subject to taxation in the District;

(3) The sum of 30% of the company’s qualified personnel expenditures that are subject to taxation in the District;

(3A) The sum of 10% of the company’s qualified personnel expenditures that are not subject to taxation in the District; and

(4) The sum of 50% of the company’s qualified job training expenditures.

(5) Repealed.

(c) Subject to 2-1204.11a, 2-1204.11c, and 2-1204.12 and subject to the availability of funds, the Mayor may provide to an applicant, as an incentive for the creation of production and postproduction facilities in the District, a payment of up to 25% of the taxpayer’s base infrastructure investment; provided, that if all or a portion of the base infrastructure investment is in a facility that may be used for purposes unrelated to production or postproduction activities, then the base infrastructure investment shall be eligible for the up to 25% payment only if the Mayor determines that the facility will support and be necessary to secure production or postproduction activity.

(d) Subject to the availability of funds, the Mayor may utilize the Fund to provide grants to movie theaters, as defined in § 2-1204.21(1), to assist in compliance with part C of this subchapter.

(Mar. 14, 2007, D.C. Law 16-290, § 2, 54 DCR 984; July 18, 2008, D.C. Law 17-187, § 2, 55 DCR 6116; Mar. 3, 2010, D.C. Law 18-111, § 2071(a), 57 DCR 181; Feb. 26, 2015, D.C. Law 20-155, § 2042, 61 DCR 9990; Mar. 9, 2016, D.C. Law 21-81, § 2(a), 63 DCR 768; Sept. 11, 2019, D.C. Law 23-16, § 2033(a), 66 DCR 8621; July 19, 2024, D.C. Law 25-190, § 7(a), 71 DCR 6693.)

Prior Codifications

2001 Ed., § 39-501.

Section References

This section is referenced in § 2-1204.11a and § 2-1204.11b.

Effect of Amendments

D.C. Law 17-187, in subsec. (b)(1)(A), deleted “the lesser of 10% of qualified expenses or” following “not to exceed”.

D.C. Law 18-111, in the section heading and subsec. (a), deleted “Grant” following “Incentive”; and rewrote subsecs. (b) and (c).

The 2015 amendment by D.C. Law 20-155 rewrote the section heading; and rewrote (a).

The 2016 amendment by D.C. Law 21-81 substituted “Film, Television and Entertainment Rebate Fund” for “DC Film Incentive Fund” in the section heading; rewrote (a)(1); in the introductory paragraph of (b), substituted “§§ 2-1204.11a, 2-1204.11b, 2-1204.11c, 2-1204.11d, 2-1204.11e, and 2-1204.12” for “§ 2-1204.11a” and substituted “payment up to” for “payment equal to”; substituted “35%” for “42%” in (b)(1); substituted “expenditures that are subject to taxation in the District” for “expenditures” in (b)(3); added (b)(3A) ; and substituted “up to 25%” for “25%” twice in (c).

Emergency Legislation

For temporary (90 day) addition, see § 2 of Film DC Economic Incentive Emergency Act of 2006 (D.C. Act 16-570, December 19, 2006, 54 DCR 8).

For temporary (90 days) amendment of this section, see § 2042 of the Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Support Emergency Act of 2014 (D.C. Act 20-377, July 14, 2014, 61 DCR 7598, 20 STAT 3696).

For temporary (90 days) amendment of this section, see § 2042 of the Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Support Congressional Review Emergency Act of 2014 (D.C. Act 20-449, October 10, 2014, 61 DCR 10915, 20 STAT 4188).

For temporary (90 days) amendment of this section, see § 2042 of the Fiscal Year 2015 Budget Support Second Congressional Review Emergency Act of 2014 (D.C. Act 20-566, January 9, 2015, 62 DCR 884, 21 STAT 541).

Short Title

Short title: Section 2070 of D.C. Law 18-111 provided that subtitle H of title II of the act may be cited as the “Financial Incentives for Motion Picture and Television Productions Amendment Act of 2009”.

Editor's Notes

Section 7085 of D.C. Law 17-219 repealed section 4 of D.C. Law 16-290.