Vancouver: In tax-credit news, the B.C. government will extend a couple of existing rebate programs and will likely introduce a new tax credit in its new fiscal year, still six months away.

The foreign producer-oriented B.C. Production Services Tax Credit will be renewed for a second five-year term. Introduced originally in 1998, the 11% rebate on qualified B.C. labor was originally set to expire next March 31.

Film Incentive B.C., meanwhile, will also get a five-year renewal. Developed for B.C.-based domestic producers, FIBC offers a 20% tax credit on labor and gives a 12.5% bonus to producers working outside of Vancouver and a 3% bonus to producers offering training opportunities.

And after years of intense lobbying by the Association of B.C. Animation Producers, B.C. is set to get a new animation and visual effects tax credit, currently under review by accounting firm Ellis Foster. If approved, B.C.’s animation and effects credit will likely be similar to the Ontario Computer Animation and Special Effects Tax Credit, which has offered a 20% rebate on qualifying labor since 1997.

John Lambert, CEO of Vancouver-based Prospero Entertainment Group, which does service production including post-production and visual effects supervision, welcomes the new tax credit as a ‘massive’ boost to business.

‘Most companies here have been hurt by the non-competitive tax formula,’ says Lambert, referring to the existing credits in Ontario and Quebec. ‘A B.C. tax credit will go a long way toward bringing back projects, especially series work.’

Prospero is a coproducer and post-production supervisor of 400 Boys, a $10-million sci-fi U.K. coproduction that goes to camera in Montreal in November. Post will be split up between Montreal, London and Vancouver, says Lambert, but a local tax credit would have allowed the company to centralize digital work in Vancouver. With a $1-million effects budget, 400 Boys would be worth up to $200,000 in rebates

In B.C.’s most recent fiscal year (ended March 31, 2002), the PSTC was accessed by 119 projects asking for $47 million in rebates, up 52% over the previous year. In year 2001/02, meanwhile, FIBC highlighted the downturn in domestic production: 83 projects applied for only $12 million in rebates compared to the 80 projects that requested $31 million in the previous fiscal year.