OPIF Tax Credit Auction: Pre-pay your taxes at a discount, and direct your dollars to a growing Oregon creative industry
Oregon Film (AKA Oregon Film & Video Office)
Oregon Film helps to foster the connections between storytellers, productions, businesses, and the public sector.
Every year Oregon Film, the state film and video economic development office, auctions off discounted state tax credits in order to incentivize the state's growing media industry.
So, what does this mean for you?
It means that you can pre-pay your Oregon state taxes at a discount and direct your tax dollars to an industry that provides jobs, small business growth and creative content that celebrates Oregon to an international audience.
Since its inception in 2005, the Oregon Production Investment Fund (OPIF) has helped to bring more than $1.7B of direct spending to the state in the form of television series, feature films, interactive games, animated content and documentaries. These projects include series like NBC's "Grimm," "Leverage" and "The Librarians" from Electric Entertainment, the multi-Emmy nominated "Shrill" and "Trinkets;" feature films like "Wild," "Leave No Trace," and "Pig;" and animated projects like the Oscar nominated "Kubo and the Two Strings" and the upcoming "Wendell & Wild" and Guillermo de Toro's "Pinocchio."
The OPIF program is funded through an annual auction of Oregon state tax credits that can be bid upon for purchase for as little as 90% of face value.
This year the online auction has $20M of credits available for purchase in $500 increments. By way of example, this means you can bid 92% on 100 x $500 tax credits and, if your bid is successful, receive a $50,000 state tax credit for $46,000.
Now, it is an auction and therefore the highest bids will win in the event that the auction is over subscribed, but these non-transferable tax credits are reported on your annual state tax return and can be carried over for up to three years.
This year's auction takes place from 9a on Monday, September 27 and runs through 5p on Friday, October 1, 2021. You can find out more about the process, with links and explanations, on?this page?of our website. Alternatively, you can?sign up for our OPIF Tax Auction Newsletter?and reach out directly to Tim Williams with any questions ([email protected]).