South Dakota used to have a narrow film program. Chapter 10-46D of the South Dakota Codified Laws let motion picture, documentary, and television productions apply for refunds of contractor's excise tax, sales tax, and use tax. The legislature repealed all twelve sections (10-46D-1 through 10-46D-12) in Session Laws 2006, chapter 57, section 13, with the repeal taking effect June 30, 2011. Nothing has replaced it. There is no tax credit, rebate, or grant for production in South Dakota today.
That leaves producers with two practical questions: what shooting there will cost in tax, and whether a neighboring state with a program can play the same landscape.
What a production pays
The South Dakota Department of Revenue lists the state sales and use tax rate at 4.2%. It applies to retail sales, leases and rentals of tangible personal property, products transferred electronically, and sales of services. Municipal sales tax can apply on top of the state rate, so look up the total rate for each town before you finalize the location accounts.
Without a production exemption, sales tax is simply a cost in the location and equipment accounts. Here is a $1,000,000 feature spending $650,000 in South Dakota, of which $280,000 is taxable purchases and rentals (equipment rental, expendables, set dressing, picture vehicles). The other $370,000 is payroll and non-taxable items.
- State sales and use tax: $280,000 x 4.2% = $11,760
- Municipal tax: depends on the towns, budget it per location
- Incentive: $0
The same show in a state with a 20% or 25% program on qualified spend would be looking at a six-figure return, so moving a shoot to South Dakota only makes sense when the location can't be matched somewhere else or when the production is small enough that incentive paperwork isn't worth it. For a $5,000,000 production with $1,500,000 of taxable purchases, the state tax alone is $63,000.
When shooting in South Dakota still makes sense
Some scripts need the actual place. A documentary about a reservation community, the Black Hills, or a specific ranch family isn't going to be shot in Montana with a sign changed. In that case, plan around the lack of a rebate:
- Keep the South Dakota unit small and schedule it tightly. Stack exteriors so the company isn't paying hotel and per diem for a travel day between locations.
- Price local vendors against trucking a package in. The tax is due either way, and a package shipped from out of state adds truck days and driver hotel nights to the transportation account.
- For federal land such as national parks and monuments, the permit comes from the managing federal agency, and those rules apply no matter which state the land is in.
- If the rest of the shoot can go elsewhere, split the schedule: South Dakota for the scenes that need it, and a neighboring incentive state for interiors and stage work.
A split like that means two sets of paperwork. Most state programs count only spend in their own state and set a minimum you have to hit there, so run each state's share through the incentive calculator before committing the schedule.
Nearby states to price
South Dakota borders Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, and North Dakota, and each is worth checking for its current status. Wyoming has no program either. Each page lists the current rate, minimum, and caps from its film office. If the difference between credits and rebates is unfamiliar, read how film tax credits work, and use the incentives hub to compare all of them.
When Storiara's Funding page matches incentives to a project's locations, South Dakota comes up as a state with no program, so the budget for a South Dakota shoot carries no incentive offset.