According to Yonhap News,
(SEJONG=Yonhap News) The South Korean government will offer tax credits for the production of film and television content starting this year to help grow the industries and aid companies suffering due to the Chinese ban on imports of Korean culture, the culture ministry said Monday.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that a revised enforcement regulation on the Restriction of Special Taxation Act came into force on Friday.
The revised law requires the government to deduct about 10 percent of corporate taxes for small and medium-sized companies for their spending on the production of film and television content beginning last January. The rate was smaller with about 3 percent for large companies.
The ministry expects the tax credits would result in an increase of 471.4 billion won (US$417 million) in investment and the creation of 6,433 jobs from the industries for the next five years.
This marks the first time that the cultural sector benefits from state tax incentives that have focused on manufacturers.
"We hope this would be a chance to vitalize the production of and investment into homegrown media content, so another smash-hit TV series like 'Descendants of the Sun" and blockbuster films like 'Avatar' and 'Star Wars' can be made on home soil," a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Since last October, Korean cultural content and stars have been under a massive ban in China as an apparent protest over Seoul's decision to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) on its soil.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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Source: Yonhap News (Mar. 20, 2017)