Location Offset, Producer Offset, PDV Offset. Three federal incentives, three different briefs. Here is the plain-English head-to-head and when to use which.
All three are federal, administered by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (Office for the Arts) for Location and PDV, and by Screen Australia for the Producer Offset. State and territory governments (Screen NSW, Film Victoria, Screen Queensland, Screen Australia partners) layer additional incentives on top in most jurisdictions.
| Location Offset | Producer Offset | PDV Offset | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rate | 30 percent of QAPE. | 40 percent of QAPE for feature film. 30 percent for non-feature (TV, doc, animation). | 30 percent of QAPE on post, digital and VFX work done in Australia. |
| Who is it for? | Large-budget international (and qualifying domestic) productions that physically shoot in Australia. | Australian productions with significant Australian creative content and Australian production company control. | Productions that do post, digital or VFX work in Australia, including productions shot entirely offshore. |
| Minimum spend | AUD 20 million QAPE. | AUD 1m QAPE for feature film. AUD 500k per broadcast hour for TV drama (min durations apply). | AUD 500k QAPE on Australian post, digital and VFX. |
| Per-hour or per-budget requirements | No per-hour cap. 70 percent of QAPE/total budget tests apply in some scenarios. | TV: AUD 500k QAPE per broadcast hour, minimum episode and series duration thresholds. Documentary AUD 250k per hour. | No per-hour requirement. Single project basis. |
| Cultural / content test | Significant Australian content test (lighter touch than Producer Offset). Or large-budget international gateway. | Significant Australian content test (heavy touch): creative team, key cast, IP control all weighted. | No cultural content test. Production does not need to be Australian. |
| Who claims | Australian-resident production company or permanent establishment that incurs the QAPE. | Australian production company that holds the IP and controls the production. | Australian-resident PDV service company. |
| Claim mechanism | Provisional certificate from Office for the Arts, then claim via corporate tax return after delivery. | Provisional certificate from Screen Australia, then claim via corporate tax return. | Claim via corporate tax return after PDV work complete. |
| When is it paid | On lodgement of the corporate tax return for the income year QAPE was incurred. Lenders advance against certificate. | Same: on tax return lodgement after final certificate. Heavily-lent against. | Same: on tax return lodgement. Smaller lender market. |
| Can be combined with | State-level incentives (NSW Made, VPI, Screen QLD PISP etc). NOT with Producer Offset on same project. | State-level incentives. NOT with Location or PDV on same spend. | State-level PDV incentives. CAN be claimed alongside Location Offset if PDV spend is separately accounted for. |
The Location Offset is what brings Marvel, Disney, Netflix and Apple to Sydney's Disney Studios Australia and to the Gold Coast's Village Roadshow. The headline 30 percent on QAPE, with a AUD 20 million QAPE minimum, is built for productions that genuinely base principal photography in Australia. There is no per-hour cap, no broadcast minimum, and the cultural content test is lighter than the Producer Offset. It does not require Australian creative ownership; it requires Australian spend at scale.
QAPE covers Australian crew, Australian-based cast working days in Australia, location fees, equipment hire from Australian suppliers, post done in Australia, accommodation, transport and per diems incurred in Australia. Spend incurred outside Australia does not qualify, regardless of who pays it.
State-level incentives stack on top. NSW Made adds a top-up for productions in New South Wales; Film Victoria's VPI is the most active state-level co-funding in Australia and is a real factor for borderline city decisions. Screen Queensland's PISP supports productions on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane. For a USD 50m international feature, the federal 30 percent plus a state-level 10 to 15 percent is genuinely competitive against Canada, the UK or Eastern Europe.
The Producer Offset is the route for genuinely Australian productions. The 40 percent rate on feature film QAPE is the highest of the three, and applies where the production passes a significant Australian content test (Australian production company control, Australian creative team, Australian IP). It is genuinely a creative-ownership test, not a spend test. International producers occasionally access it via co-production treaties (Australia has official co-production treaties with the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Canada, China and others), where the Australian portion of a treaty co-production qualifies.
Non-feature formats (TV drama, animation, documentary) get 30 percent, with minimum QAPE per broadcast hour (AUD 500k for drama, AUD 250k for documentary) and minimum episode and series duration thresholds. The Producer Offset cannot be combined with the Location Offset on the same project, so the choice is meaningful: significant Australian content and 40 percent on a feature, or large international shoot at 30 percent under the Location Offset.
The PDV (Post, Digital and Visual Effects) Offset is the most flexible of the three. It pays 30 percent on QAPE for post, digital and VFX work done in Australia, with a AUD 500k QAPE minimum. There is no cultural content test, no Australian production ownership requirement, and the production does not need to have shot anything in Australia. A film shot entirely in Vancouver or London can do its VFX at Animal Logic in Sydney or RSP in Adelaide and claim the PDV Offset on that work alone.
This is what built Australia's VFX bench: Animal Logic, Rising Sun Pictures, Cutting Edge, Iloura, Method Studios. The federal PDV plus state-level PDV incentives (notably South Australia's PDV co-funding via Screen Australia) makes the country genuinely competitive for international VFX work, and the offset is routinely claimed by international productions that never shot a frame here.
The basic rule: the same dollar of QAPE can only be claimed under one offset. A production claiming the Location Offset on principal photography can claim the PDV Offset on post work done in Australia after wrap, provided that post spend is separately accounted for and was not already counted in the Location Offset QAPE. The Producer Offset and Location Offset cannot be combined on the same project at all, because they cover overlapping spend categories and the production has to qualify for one or the other.
State-level offsets do combine with the federal offsets on the same spend in most jurisdictions, which is where the real cash advantage often sits. Worth running the math with your line producer factoring federal plus state, not federal alone.
Location Offset at 30 percent. Default route above the AUD 20m threshold. Stack state-level incentives on top: NSW Made if shooting in Sydney, VPI if in Melbourne, PISP if on the Gold Coast.
Producer Offset at 40 percent. Significant Australian content is genuine, the 40 percent rate beats the Location Offset's 30 percent, and the AUD 1m QAPE threshold is comfortably cleared.
PDV Offset at 30 percent on the Australian VFX spend. No cultural test, no Australian production ownership required. The animation work itself qualifies.
Location Offset plus PDV Offset, stacked properly. Location Offset on principal photography QAPE; PDV Offset claimed separately on post work in Australia after wrap. State-level incentives on top of the Location Offset. Significant cash returned.
Producer Offset (Australian portion) plus UK AVEC (UK portion). Under the official Australia-UK co-production treaty the Australian half qualifies for the Producer Offset at 40 percent and the UK half qualifies for AVEC. Requires proper treaty structuring from the start.
Producer Offset at 30 percent. Above the AUD 500k per broadcast hour threshold. Significant Australian content is genuine. Location Offset does not apply at this budget level.
None of the three. Advertising and corporate content do not qualify for any federal offset. You shoot in Australia for the locations, crew and weather; the offsets do not factor.
The honest version: The right offset is determined by the project, not chosen. If the project is genuinely Australian with significant Australian creative ownership, it is Producer Offset. If it is an international shoot above AUD 20m QAPE, it is Location Offset. If it is post-only or post-led, it is PDV. Where there is genuine choice (rare), run real costed quotes with your line producer factoring federal plus state-level incentives before deciding.
This page is plain-English production guidance, not tax advice. Always confirm current rates and rules with Screen Australia, the Office for the Arts and your tax adviser. The offsets have been adjusted several times in the past decade and the 2023-24 reforms (particularly the Location Offset increase to 30 percent and the QAPE threshold change) materially shifted the landscape, so always check the live rate before structuring.
Send your brief and we will tell you honestly which federal offset applies, what the state-level top-ups look like, and where the realistic cash returned lands. No obligation, no jargon.
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