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This latest federal tax incentive push seems like a total pipe dream, right? Even as individual states have duked it out for decades for the privilege of stealing Hollywood productions, producers have been praying that the U.S. government would offer a layer of support to stack on top of state and local programs, finally leveling the international playing field. But federally, it’s actually been going in the opposite direction. Even the small Section 181 incentive, which allowed immediate deductions of $15 million to $20 million in production spend in certain cases, expired at the end of 2025.
