Tax benefits may give entertainment a needed boost
The Korean government will offer tax benefits to those investing in the production of movies and television programs as well as research and development of technologies to be used in music, cartoons and webtoons.
According to the revised law, announced by the culture ministry and finance ministry on Thursday, companies will get tax deductions on their expenditures used to make movies and television programs. The deduction rate for small and medium sized companies will be 10 percent, while the rate for large corporations will be 7 percent.
“With the introduction of the tax benefits,” the culture ministry said through press release, “we hope to boost the production and investment of visual contents.”
It added, referring to the latest mega-hit Korean TV drama, “We hope to see more visual contents like ‘Descendents of the Sun’ and those that surpass it.”
Those spending money in the research and development of technologies, like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), to be applied in industries like music, cartoons and webtoons, will also benefit from tax deductions. Until now, only those investing in the R&D of these technologies to be used in games, movies and animations were entitled to such benefits.
Culture ministry officials said that new technologies like holograms will improve the technical and artistic level of performance stages. They said they are particularly hopeful about the webtoon industries, which could flourish further with the active developments of tablet PCs, and other image and sound equipment.
BY KIM HYUNG-EUN [hkim@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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