Guidelines
Eligibility
QAPE THRESHOLDS
An eligible project must be of a minimum duration and incur a minimum level of qualifying Australian production expenditure (QAPE), depending on the format.
QAPE and duration thresholds
All formats must meet or exceed a ‘total QAPE’ threshold with some formats also required to meet a ‘per hour’ QAPE threshold.
The ‘per hour’ QAPE is calculated by dividing the total QAPE of the project by its actual duration in hours (for series, the total duration = the number of episodes x the actual duration of each episode, expressed in hours).
| Format |
Minimum duration |
‘Total’ QAPE threshold |
‘Per hour’ QAPE threshold |
| Feature films, including theatrical documentaries and animations (30% or 40% offset depending on eligibility) |
| Feature |
More than 60 minutes |
$500,000 |
N/A |
| Large format (e.g. IMAX) |
At least 45 minutes |
$500,000 |
N/A |
| Non-feature programs other than documentaries or animations (30% offset) |
| Single-episode |
1 commercial hour |
$500,000 |
N/A |
| Season of a series (at least 2 episodes) |
Commercial ½ hour per episode |
$1,000,000 |
$500,000 per actual hour |
| Non-feature documentaries (30% offset) |
| Single-episode or season of a series |
Commercial ½ hour per episode |
$500,000 |
$250,000 per actual hour |
| Non-feature animations (30% offset) |
| Season of a series (at least 2 episodes) |
Commercial ¼ hour per episode |
$1,000,000 |
$500,000 per actual hour |
| Single-episode |
1 commercial hour |
$500,000 |
N/A |
| Short-form animation (single episode or series) |
Commercial ¼ hour in total |
$250,000 |
$1,000,000 per actual hour |
The QAPE spreadsheet, which must be lodged with all applications, will automatically calculate whether your project meets the QAPE thresholds.
For the purposes of meeting the QAPE thresholds, the ITAA allows official co-productions to count expenditure incurred in the co-producing country by its co-producer that would have been QAPE if it had been incurred in Australia. This applies only to official co-productions and only to meeting the thresholds for eligibility.
Ineligible formats
The following formats are ineligible for the Producer Offset:
- an advertising program or commercial
- a discussion, quiz, panel or game show*, or variety program, or a program of a like nature
- a film of a public event
- a training film
- a news or current affairs program
- a reality TV program (other than a documentary - section 376-25 of the ITAA gives the meaning of documentary), or
- a computer game within the meaning of Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995.
* Game shows were added to the list of ineligible formats by the Tax and Superannuation Amendment (2013 Measures No. 2) Act 2013, for projects which commenced principal photography on or after 28 June 2013.