Los Angeles, CA (August 4, 2026)—Support for tax rebates intended to bring post-production work back to California is gaining momentum, with IATSE recently joining the Motion Picture Editors Guild and others to help get the legislation passed.
The proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 2319, has been working its way through committee since it was introduced by California Assemblymember Nick Schultz earlier this year, and cleared appropriations in May. AB 1138, also referred to as Tax Credit Program 4.0, previously expanded tax incentives for film and TV principal photography within California. AB 2319, on the other hand, proposes a tax incentive aimed squarely at encouraging filmmakers to bring post-production work—picture editing, sound editing and mixing, Foley recording, ADR, music editing, music composition and score recording, VFX, color correction, mastering—to the state.
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The bill would create the standalone California Postproduction Tax Credit, which would take effect on or after January 1, 2027. It offers a 35% base credit on qualified California post-production expenses for projects filmed outside the state or that did not qualify for the 4.0 program. Potential additional credits could boost tax credits up to 50%, including uplifts for out-of-zone post production (5%), out-of-zone California resident labor (10%) and qualified music scoring expenditures (15%). Individual qualifying projects could receive up to $6 million in tax incentives.
The proposed bill, which is also sponsored by the California Post Alliance, is intended to enable the state to compete with the post-production incentives offered by the likes of Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as Canada, the UK and Ireland, Australia, Spain, France, Italy and Qatar. In past years, productions filming in Atlanta, Vancouver or Europe would finish their projects in California, but that workflow has been eroded as these other states and countries have passed tax credits into law.
As post work has moved elsewhere, a number of LA post houses have closed while others have slashed staffing levels. As the bill’s text also notes, “Major scoring facilities and stages, such as Sony, Fox, Warner Brothers and Skywalker, are not generating as much revenue as in previous years and are at risk of closure.”
AB 2319’s supporters, including the Motion Picture Editors Guild, are also shining a spotlight on the economic impact of runaway post production. Hundreds of guild members have reportedly gone without union work for three years or more. No work means no health coverage, and 25% fewer post professionals have industry health coverage today than four years ago. According to the guilds, the decline in California post production has led to $507 million in lost wages annually.
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The unions have also been losing members. The MPEG has apparently lost nearly 17% of its active California membership since its 2022 peak. Over the past five years, guild members have moved out of California at more than three times the rate that others have been moving in.
