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Tom is a filmmaker, producer, and marketing specialist based in Los Angeles.
At Wrapbook, we pride ourselves on providing outstanding free resources to producers and their crews, but this post is for informational purposes only as of the date above. The content on our website is not intended to provide and should not be relied on for legal, accounting, or tax advice. You should consult with your own legal, accounting, or tax advisors to determine how this general information may apply to your specific circumstances.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2319 on September 19, 2026, creating California's first standalone tax credit built specifically for post-production.
If you're budgeting a feature or series and deciding where the finishing work happens, this new California film tax credit could be impactful. That's the promise behind the AB 2319 California post-production tax credit: for the first time, the state will pay you to post here even if you shot your project somewhere else.
Here's what qualifies, how much you can claim, and how to plan for the new program.
AB 2319 creates a new film tax credit for standalone post-production work that rewards projects conducting post in California with a credit against state income tax on qualified post-production spend.
The bill, authored by Assemblymember Nick Schultz (D-Burbank), designates $10 million to fund the incentive which covers picture editorial, sound, music, visual effects, and finishing.
It's a companion to California's existing Film & Television Tax Credit and it fills one specific gap: the older credit only covered post-production expenses for productions that were also shot in the state.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the new program into law at the Television Academy in North Hollywood, along with a companion budget bill, AB 186, that made the flagship production credit more valuable by raising its refundability to 95% with pay outs over two years instead of five. You can read the full text of the bill on the California Legislature's site.
The AB 2319 post-production credit provides 35% to 50% back on qualified post-production spending incurred in California. The base rate is 35% on editorial post work. From there, bonuses stack:
The program divides qualified post-production costs into two categories, and it helps to understand both, as they're treated differently.
It covers picture editing, sound design, foley, ADR, sound mixing and engineering, music editing, color correction, conform and online assembly, dailies, encoding, mastering, and music scoring performed by musicians.
In short, if it happens in the edit bay, on the mix stage, or on the scoring stage, the expense most likely falls into this editorial post-production bucket.
AB 2319 treats VFX as its own category rather than folding it into editorial.
Visual effects carries its own definition, borrowed from an existing California regulation (Title 10, Section 5550 of the Code of Regulations), the same one California uses across its film tax credit program.
Each category gets its own per-project spending cap: when the California Film Commission calculates your award, it can count up to $6 million of editorial expenditures and up to $6 million of VFX expenditures, tracked independently. Because VFX spend doesn't draw down your editorial cap or the reverse, a project heavy in both can bring as much as $12 million of countable spend to the table before the percentage is applied.
No. That’s what makes this new California film tax incentive so notable.
Under the existing California Film Tax Credit Program 4.0, projects generally had to film in California in order for post-production expenses to qualify. The AB 2319 California post-production tax credit opens the door for standalone post-production work in the Golden State.
The program is built for projects that shot somewhere else, or that never got the state production credit, and want to bring the finishing work home. A series that was shot in Georgia, for example, can still edit, mix, and score in Los Angeles and qualify for a tax credit on that eligible spend.
In order to qualify for California’s new post-production incentive, a project must spend at least $1 million on post in the state or conduct at least 75% of editorial post in-state, whichever is greater.
Furthermore, applicants will be ranked by a “post-production services ratio” (qualified wages divided by credit requested) with credits awarded from the highest ratio down until the round's funds are exhausted.
Post must wrap within 18 months of the California Film Commission approving your application, the copyright has to be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, and projects must also submit a diversity workplan checklist to qualify.
To claim the AB 2319 post-production credit, your project has to be a qualified motion picture with a budget of at least $1 million (per episode for series). Qualified projects include:
Most unscripted formats do not qualify. The statute specifically excludes traditional reality TV, game shows, talk shows, docufollow programming, documentaries, and commercials. A big-budget competition series can qualify. A standard reality show can't.
The program’s annual funding is set at $10 million for the post-production credit’s first year, FY 2027.
Think of this as a starting point: the initial funding cap is intended to launch the credit, gauge how much demand there is, and give lawmakers real allocation data before they decide how far to take it. Supporters have said they intend to seek more funding during the next legislative session, and the structure of the law leaves room for that.
If you are planning on applying for the new California post-production film tax credit in the first year, a few things worth considering:
The California Film Commission also still has to adopt the regulations that govern applications, ranking, and documentation. Those rules will determine much of the how and when, so it's worth following film.ca.gov as the first window nears.
If you're budgeting a project that could go into post in 2027 or later, it's worth modeling the credit now and reviewing eligibility with a tax incentive specialist well ahead of the first application window.
Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, and a long list of countries (Australia, Canada, the UK) have offered targeted post-production incentives for years, which is a big reason so much editing, sound, and VFX work drifted out of state in the first place.
The AB 2319 California post-production tax credit closes the competitive gap rather than inventing something new.
For producers, the signal may be encouraging: California has begun treating post-production as something worth competing for, and the incentive is likely to develop from here.
AB 2319 is a real shift for anyone deciding where their post-production should happen. Funding is limited, requirements are specific, and the first application window opens the middle of 2027, so the teams that benefit will be the ones that map their post spend against the rules early.
If you're weighing where to base your post, Wrapbook's Production Incentive Center can help. The tool tracks credits like this across every state, and offers comprehensive breakdowns of program requirements and returns, so you can model how an incentive affects your bottom line before you commit.
