I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2405 

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. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 19, 2015 

Mr. COLLINS of Georgia (for himself, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. SMITH of Missouri, 

Ms. LINDA T. SA ́NCHEZ 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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Facilitating Invest5 ments in Local Markets Act’’ or the ‘‘FILM Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF SPECIAL EXPENSING RULES FOR 

2 CERTAIN FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUC3 TIONS; SPECIAL EXPENSING FOR LIVE THE4 ATRICAL PRODUCTIONS. 

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 181(f) of the Internal 

6 Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking ‘‘December 

7 31, 2014’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2016’’. 

8 (b) APPLICATION TO LIVE PRODUCTIONS.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 181(a)(1) of such 

10 Code is amended by inserting ‘‘, and any qualified 

11 live theatrical production,’’ after ‘‘any qualified film 

12 or television production’’. 

13 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 181 

14 of such Code is amended— 

15 (A) by inserting ‘‘or any qualified live the16 atrical production’’ after ‘‘qualified film or tele17 vision production’’ each place it appears in sub18 sections (a)(2), (b), and (c)(1), 

19 (B) by inserting ‘‘or qualified live theat20 rical productions’’ after ‘‘qualified film or tele21 vision productions’’ in subsection (f), and 

22 (C) by inserting ‘‘AND LIVE THEAT23 RICAL’’ after ‘‘FILM AND TELEVISION’’ in 

24 the heading. 

25 (3) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The item relating 

26 to section 181 in the table of sections for part VI 


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1 of subchapter B of chapter 1 of such Code is amend2 ed to read as follows: 

‘‘Sec. 181. Treatment of certain qualified film and television and live theatrical 

productions.’’. 

3 (c) QUALIFIED LIVE THEATRICAL PRODUCTION.— 

4 Section 181 of such Code is amended— 

5 (1) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f), as 

6 amended by subsections (a) and (b), as subsections 

7 (f) and (g), respectively, and 

8 (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol9 lowing new subsection: 

10 ‘‘(e) QUALIFIED LIVE THEATRICAL PRODUCTION.— 

11 For purposes of this section— 

12 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘qualified live 

13 theatrical production’ means any production de14 scribed in paragraph (2) if 75 percent of the total 

15 compensation of the production is qualified com16 pensation (as defined in subsection (d)(3)). 

17 ‘‘(2) PRODUCTION.— 

18 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A production is de19 scribed in this paragraph if such production is 

20 a live staged production of a play (with or with21 out music) which is derived from a written book 

22 or script and is produced or presented by a tax23 able entity in any venue which has an audience 

24 capacity of not more than 3,000 or a series of 


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1 venues the majority of which have an audience 

2 capacity of not more than 3,000. 

3 ‘‘(B) TOURING COMPANIES, ETC.—In the 

4 case of multiple live staged productions— 

5 ‘‘(i) for which the election under this 

6 section would be allowable to the same tax7 payer, and 

8 ‘‘(ii) which are— 

9 ‘‘(I) separate phases of a produc10 tion, or 

11 ‘‘(II) separate simultaneous stag12 ings of the same production in dif13 ferent geographical locations (not in14 cluding multiple performance locations 

15 of any one touring production), 

16 each such live staged production shall be treat17 ed as a separate production. 

18 ‘‘(C) PHASE.—For purposes of subpara19 graph (B), the term ‘phase’ with respect to any 

20 qualified live theatrical production refers to 

21 each of the following, but only if each of the fol22 lowing is treated by the taxpayer as a separate 

23 activity for all purposes of this title: 

24 ‘‘(i) The initial staging of a live theat25 rical production. 


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1 ‘‘(ii) Subsequent additional stagings 

2 or touring of such production which are 

3 produced by the same producer as the ini4 tial staging. 

5 ‘‘(D) EXCEPTION.—A production is not de6 scribed in this paragraph if such production in7 cludes or consists of any performance of con8 duct described in section 2257(h)(1) of title 18, 

9 United States Code.’’. 

10 (d) EFFECTIVE DATES.— 

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—The amendments made by 

12 this section shall apply to productions commencing 

13 after December 31, 2014. 

14 (2) COMMENCEMENT.—For purposes of para15 graph (1), the date on which a qualified live theat16 rical production commences is the date of the first 

17 public performance of such production for a paying 

18 audience. 

Æ 


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