Yahoo News Amazon’s ‘Citadel’ Nabs $25M in California Tax Credits as It Relocates to State
Seven TV series — two relocating and five new — will receive $80.5 million in tax incentives for shooting in California, the state’s film office said Monday.
Amazon, granted a total of $35.3 million in credits, led the way in this round of tax breaks as the only studio with more than one series on the list, followed by Paramount Global ($14.4 million), 20th Century Studios ($12.2 million), Netflix ($12.1 million) and HBO ($4.3 million). HBO came out on top in the previous round of tax credits announced in July and Netflix in the two previous allotment of incentives before that.
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The second season of Citadel — which was granted $25 million in credits — will move to Los Angeles from the U.K. to bring more spending than any other relocating TV series in California tax credit program history, according to the film office. HBO’s Wondermill will similarly relocate from Oregon to take advantage of the state’s incentive for relocating shows.
In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill (SB144) increasing the annual cap on the tax credit program by $180 million over a two-year period. It reserved an additional $15 million specifically for shows relocating to California, bringing the total annual funding for such series to $71.1 million. Criteria to qualify was relaxed to include projects that filmed their pilot episode out of state. (The program previously required relocating series to film an entire season outside of California.)
Productions for five new shows, including Netflix’s Forever and 20th Century Studio’s Paradise City, were also granted credits. New shows were accepted into the tax incentive program for the first time last year since 2019. Due to a large number of recurring series already receiving credits, new shows were unable to receive the credits until Newsom increased the cap on the program.
Additionally, Amazon and Paramount Global will receive tax breaks for shooting untitled series in California as well as Faith Media Distribution, which will shoot True to the Game in the state.
The shows are on track to spend an estimated $527 million during production. They’re projected to generate $397 million qualified spending. (Defined as wages to below-the-line workers and payments to in-state vendors.)
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