I
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2405
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 19, 2015
Mr. Collins of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Crowley, Mr. Smith of Missouri, Ms. Linda T. Sánchez of California, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Collins of New York, and Ms. Loretta Sanchez of California) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the special expensing rules for certain film and television productions and to provide for special expensing for live theatrical productions.
Short title
This Act may be cited as the Facilitating Investments in Local Markets Act
or the FILM Act
.
Extension of special expensing rules for certain film and television productions; special expensing for live theatrical productions
In general
Section 181(f) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking December 31, 2014
and inserting December 31, 2016
.
Application to live productions
In general
Section 181(a)(1) of such Code is amended by inserting , and any qualified live theatrical production,
after any qualified film or television production
.
Conforming amendments
Section 181 of such Code is amended—
by inserting or any qualified live theatrical production
after qualified film or television production
each place it appears in subsections (a)(2), (b), and (c)(1),
by inserting or qualified live theatrical productions
after qualified film or television productions
in subsection (f), and
by inserting and live theatrical
after film and television
in the heading.
Clerical amendment
The item relating to section 181 in the table of sections for part VI of subchapter B of chapter 1 of such Code is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 181. Treatment of certain qualified film and television and live theatrical productions.
.
Qualified live theatrical production
Section 181 of such Code is amended—
by redesignating subsections (e) and (f), as amended by subsections (a) and (b), as subsections (f) and (g), respectively, and
by inserting after subsection (d) the following new subsection:
Qualified live theatrical production
For purposes of this section—
In general
The term qualified live theatrical production means any production described in paragraph (2) if 75 percent of the total compensation of the production is qualified compensation (as defined in subsection (d)(3)).
Production
In general
A production is described in this paragraph if such production is a live staged production of a play (with or without music) which is derived from a written book or script and is produced or presented by a taxable entity in any venue which has an audience capacity of not more than 3,000 or a series of venues the majority of which have an audience capacity of not more than 3,000.
Touring companies, etc
In the case of multiple live staged productions—
for which the election under this section would be allowable to the same taxpayer, and
which are—
separate phases of a production, or
separate simultaneous stagings of the same production in different geographical locations (not including multiple performance locations of any one touring production),
Phase
For purposes of subparagraph (B), the term phase with respect to any qualified live theatrical production refers to each of the following, but only if each of the following is treated by the taxpayer as a separate activity for all purposes of this title:
The initial staging of a live theatrical production.
Subsequent additional stagings or touring of such production which are produced by the same producer as the initial staging.
Exception
A production is not described in this paragraph if such production includes or consists of any performance of conduct described in section 2257(h)(1) of title 18, United States Code.
.
Effective dates
In general
The amendments made by this section shall apply to productions commencing after December 31, 2014.
Commencement
For purposes of paragraph (1), the date on which a qualified live theatrical production commences is the date of the first public performance of such production for a paying audience.