The federal film tax credit bill: what a 20% credit would cover, and who has signed on

A bill in Congress would give film and TV productions a federal tax credit worth 20% of what they pay American workers, and up to 30% with bonuses. The House version, H.R. 10582, and an identical Senate bill, S. 5552, were introduced on September 24, 2026. Support is still growing: Congress’s bill records, updated this week, show 14 lawmakers joining as cosponsors between November 9 and 12, which brings the House bill to 63 cosponsors and the Senate bill to 13. The records list no action on either bill since each was referred to committee on the day it was introduced.

Rep. Laura Friedman of California, one of the House bill’s original cosponsors, says the United States has offered no national filming incentive for decades. Here is what the bill text would change, and where it stands.

What would qualify

The credit covers three kinds of production: feature films, TV pilots and TV seasons, which the bill defines as at least four episodes with common narrative or thematic elements. Each has to be made as a commercial business, cost more than $1 million and have at least 75% of its principal photography days in the United States. For animation, the bill looks instead at where the animation work and voice recording take place, measured by their cost.

Several kinds of programming are shut out: talk, interview, game and award shows, news, live sports, radio, gala events and daytime dramas. So are films and programs made mainly for social media, advertising and marketing campaigns, fundraising pieces and corporate videos, along with productions that must keep performer records under 18 U.S.C. 2257.

How the credit adds up

The base credit is 20% of what the bill calls qualified compensation: pay for work done in the United States by actors, directors, producers and production personnel. The bill’s list of production personnel runs from writers, composers and casting agents to camera operators, editors and visual-effects providers. Work by contractors counts, and so do pre-production and post-production. Participations and residuals do not. Four bonuses of 5 percentage points each can raise the rate, up to a ceiling of 30%.

The last bonus is the most involved. A company’s rise in qualifying US productions, counted against the year before the credit starts, has to equal at least 30% of its average yearly number of foreign productions over the three years before that start. The share rises to 40% in the second year and 50% from the third.

Post-production and visual effects

A production that misses the 75% test for US shooting days is not shut out entirely. If at least 75% of its visual-effects costs, or of its traditional post-production costs, are incurred in the United States, the bill treats that work as eligible on its own at 20%. Traditional post-production in the bill means editing, Foley, dialogue replacement, sound editing, scoring and music editing, credits, soundtrack production and dubbing. Only one 5-point increase is available for this work, for the rural-zone or disaster-area test or for an independent producer, so by our reading of the text it tops out at 25%.

Selling the credit, and other rules

The credit could be transferred. The bill adds it to section 6418 of the tax code, and the Congressional Research Service’s summary describes the effect as a transfer “to an unrelated third party in exchange for cash.” Friedman’s office says this lets a producer who owes too little federal tax to use the credit sell it for cash up front. A production’s tax basis would be cut by the amount of the credit, and the Treasury would write the detailed rules, including how to substantiate pay made through contractors.

Who is behind it, and where it stands

Rep. Nathaniel Moran, a Texas Republican, introduced the House bill with seven original cosponsors from both parties, Friedman among them. In the Senate, Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, introduced S. 5552 with Adam Schiff of California, John Cornyn of Texas and Raphael Warnock of Georgia as original cosponsors. Moran’s office says the sponsors’ goal is for the bill to reach final consideration before the end of the year.

California accounts for 17 of the House cosponsors, by our count. The Senate additions this week were Thom Tillis and Chris Coons on November 10 and Katie Britt and Dick Durbin on November 12.

The sponsors list endorsements from SAG-AFTRA, the Directors Guild, both Writers Guilds, IATSE, the Teamsters, the Producers Guild, the Motion Picture Association and Paramount, among others. Friedman’s office says the bill would create 143,500 full-time-equivalent jobs a year, numbers it ties to a study the Motion Picture Association released in September. Those are the supporters’ estimates. Neither bill record lists a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

Why the sponsors say it is needed

Their case rests on competition from abroad. Friedman’s office counts 65 countries with production incentives and says more than 100,000 US production jobs have gone since the industry’s peak in October 2022, a decline of roughly 36% through February 2026. It also says US high-budget production spending fell 20% in 2025 while the United Kingdom’s grew 15%. Moran’s office points to Texas, which in 2025 committed $300 million every two years through 2035 to its own incentive program, and says the federal credit would add a layer on top of it. States run their own programs too, as our report on California’s proposed expansion sets out.

If it becomes law in its current form, the credit would apply to productions whose principal photography begins in tax years starting after December 31, 2026. It is a proposal for now: a bill becomes law only after both chambers pass it and the President signs it.