Taxpayers for Common Sense provides details on the pork included in the bailout bill in order to secure its passage, including the following:
- Sec 502. Provisions related to film and television productions
In an effort to keep film and television productions in the U.S, they would be eligible for a tax incentive program. Under this program, the cost of production of qualifying films would be permitted to be immediately expensed -- that is, fully deducted from income for tax purposes -- in the year the expenditures occur. This provision also makes permanent other favorable tax treatments for production. Historically Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA) has been a supporter (dating from its creation in the 2004 corporate tax bill). The cost is estimated at $478 million over 10 years.
I suppose this is a response to similar Canadian subsidies. The absence of explicit subsidies rules on services makes this a hard case for WTO rules to deal with, but there could eventually be trade disputes related to this issue.
