The first thing to settle about an Australian shoot is which of the three federal offsets you're going to claim, because you only get one. That choice comes down to who owns the project and where the money gets spent. The rest of the finance plan (state money, co-production partners, the post schedule) follows from it.
All three are refundable tax offsets, which means the Australian production company receives the money through its tax return even when it owes no tax. For how that compares with cash rebates and transferable credits in other places, see rebates versus tax credits.
The three offsets side by side
| Location Offset | PDV Offset | Producer Offset | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it's for | International productions filming in Australia | Any production doing post, digital, or VFX work in Australia | Australian productions and official co-productions |
| Rate | 30% of QAPE | 30% of QAPE on PDV work | 40% for theatrical features, 30% for other formats |
| Minimum | A$20m QAPE; TV series also average A$1.5m per hour | A$500,000 of PDV QAPE | A$500,000 or A$1m QAPE, depending on format |
| Content test | None | None | Significant Australian content, or official co-production status |
| Other conditions | Use one or more Australian PDV providers and meet training obligations, or contribute to workforce or infrastructure capacity | Project doesn't need to be filmed in Australia | Features need a theatrical release path and an Australian theatrical distribution agreement at final certificate |
| Administered by | Office for the Arts | Office for the Arts | Screen Australia |
QAPE stands for qualifying Australian production expenditure. The legal definition sits in Division 376 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, with detailed inclusions and exclusions in the offset guidelines. In practice, an Australian production accountant maps your budget against those rules line by line, and that mapping decides your offset more than the rate does. Our glossary entries on the Location Offset, PDV Offset, and Producer Offset give the short definitions.
What the combined percentage really is
You will still see claims that productions "capture up to 50%" of the budget in Australia or that the Location Offset is "around 40%." The program pages don't support either figure.
The federal Location Offset is 30% of QAPE, and QAPE is less than the total budget. Most states and territories offer their own production incentives on top, and Screen Australia's brochure says those can be combined with the Location or PDV Offset. State programs vary by agency and are often negotiated per project, so the combined percentage for any show depends on which state and what it offers. The brochure mentions state PDV incentives of up to 15%, with some states offering more. Call the state screen agency before you put a combined figure in a finance plan.
The Location Offset, for US studio and streamer shows
This is the offset most American producers mean when they talk about shooting in Australia. It has no nationality test, no cap, and no sunset date, and the A$20 million floor keeps it to larger productions.
Screen Australia's brochure lists productions filmed in Australia with federal and state incentive support, among them The Fall Guy, Anyone But You, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Ticket to Paradise. Plenty of them aren't set in Australia. Ticket to Paradise is set in Bali and was shot around Queensland, including the Whitsunday Islands, the Gold Coast, and Brisbane. Earlier, San Andreas was based at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast and used Brisbane and Gold Coast locations for California, with a final unit in San Francisco. We look at that craft in doubling locations.
The condition that trips people up is the PDV requirement. A Location Offset production has to use one or more Australian PDV providers and meet training obligations or contribute to workforce or infrastructure capacity. If your VFX is already awarded to vendors in London and Montreal, sort this out with the Office for the Arts during prep, long before you apply for the final certificate.
Worked example: a A$30 million US feature
A US studio comedy plans a 45-day shoot in Queensland with a total budget of A$30 million. The production accountant's first pass sorts the budget:
| Budget item | A$ | Counts as QAPE? |
|---|---|---|
| Australian crew, cast, stages, locations, equipment, housing | 20,500,000 | Yes |
| Australian post and VFX vendor | 2,000,000 | Yes |
| US-based lead cast and director fees, travel from LA | 5,000,000 | Mostly no (assumed A$500,000 qualifies) |
| Financing, insurance, contingency, overseas post | 2,500,000 | No |
| Total | 30,000,000 |
QAPE: A$20,500,000 + A$2,000,000 + A$500,000 = A$23,000,000
That clears the A$20 million threshold by A$3 million. The margin matters, because if the dollar moves or the schedule loses a week of Australian spend, the show can fall under the floor and lose the whole offset. Budget with enough cushion that ordinary slippage can't take you below A$20 million.
Location Offset: A$23,000,000 x 30% = A$6,900,000
If the state agency adds support, that sits on top. The offset arrives after the final certificate and the company's Australian tax return, so productions commonly borrow against the expected offset to cover the gap.
The PDV Offset, for shows shot somewhere else
A production shot in Georgia or the UK can still bring its post and VFX to Australia. The PDV Offset pays 30% on qualifying PDV spend from A$500,000, with no filming requirement. The brochure lists recent PDV work on titles including Mickey 17, Superman, Sinners, Wicked: For Good, and The White Lotus season three.
A feature that shot in Atlanta and awards A$6 million of VFX and sound to Australian vendors would claim A$6,000,000 x 30% = A$1,800,000, plus any state PDV incentive. The catch is that the PDV Offset counts as the production's one federal offset. It can't be added to a Location Offset on the same project, so a show that films in Australia takes its PDV work inside the Location Offset instead.
The Producer Offset, for Australian projects
The Producer Offset exists to support Australian stories, and it tests for that. A project needs significant Australian content, which Screen Australia assesses by looking at the subject matter, where it was made, and the nationality and residence of the people making it, among other factors. An official co-production under one of Australia's treaties also qualifies. The brochure lists partner countries including Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, South Korea, and the UK, and notes most treaties expect each partner to contribute at least 20% of the finance and creative input.
The rate is 40% of QAPE for feature films made for commercial exhibition in cinemas, and 30% for other formats. For TV and streaming projects the 30% rate applies where principal photography started on or after 1 July 2021, and 20% before that.
Two rules change the budget more than people expect.
The ATL cap. QAPE for development and above-the-line spend is capped at 20% of total film expenditure under section 376-170(4)(b) of the Act. Screen Australia's FAQ notes the cap doesn't apply to feature documentaries. See above-the-line for what usually falls in that bucket.
The exchange rate. When a producer spends in a foreign currency, Screen Australia's FAQ says the threshold test uses the rate on the day principal photography started, and the final QAPE uses the average rate across the period the spend was incurred.
Worked example: an A$8 million Australian feature
An Australian drama with an Australian writer, director, and cast has a total film expenditure of A$8 million and plans a cinema release.
- Budgeted development and above-the-line spend: A$2,100,000
- ATL cap: A$8,000,000 x 20% = A$1,600,000, so A$500,000 of ATL spend doesn't count
- Other qualifying spend in Australia: A$5,200,000
- QAPE: A$1,600,000 + A$5,200,000 = A$6,800,000
- Producer Offset: A$6,800,000 x 40% = A$2,720,000
That is about a third of the budget, which is why Australian producers put the offset at the center of the finance plan and borrow against it during production.
Certificates and timing
For the Producer Offset, a provisional certificate is optional and non-binding. You can apply at any time during development, financing, or production, and it tells financiers the project looks eligible on the information given. The final certificate is the one that pays. Screen Australia's indicative timeframes are 8 to 10 weeks for provisional certificates and 12 to 16 weeks for finals, measured from the date it holds a complete application, and its FAQ says most applications arrive incomplete. Final applications need a QAPE spreadsheet, a statutory declaration, executed above-the-line agreements, and for features, the Australian theatrical distribution agreement.
The Location and PDV Offsets are handled by the Office for the Arts in Canberra rather than Screen Australia. The brochure recommends getting in touch early, and Ausfilm, the industry and government partnership with an office in Los Angeles, can connect US producers with studios, crew, and PDV vendors. Raise the PDV and training conditions in those first calls.
Australia or New Zealand?
The obvious comparison for a Pacific shoot is New Zealand. Its international rebate is 20% of qualifying spend, with a 5% uplift available to productions spending NZ$20 million or more that pass a points test. From 1 January 2026 the live action minimum dropped to NZ$4 million. Australia's Location Offset pays more per dollar of qualifying spend but starts at A$20 million, so a mid-sized international production that can't reach that floor may find New Zealand the only one of the two it can use. For a broader comparison across countries, see why productions shoot overseas, and use the incentive calculator to put your own spend through both.
Storiara's Funding module includes records for all three Australian offsets in its built-in incentive list. Its estimate assumes 60% of your budget qualifies and compares that figure with the program minimum, which is a rough stand-in for real QAPE, so apply only the one offset you plan to claim and replace the estimate with your accountant's QAPE figure once you have it.