The provincial government released its Fall budget on November 5, 2020. As expected, it was mainly focused on protecting and supporting people and businesses during the pandemic. Therefore, the tax credits for the creative industries were amended to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on productions. The amendment for the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) sector is as follows:
OIDMTC: For specified and non-specified products, eligible labour expenditures must normally be incurred during the 37-month period prior to product completion. This expenditure window is extended by an additional 24 months. This applies to products that were not completed before March 15, 2020 and for which eligible labour expenditures were incurred in the 2020 taxation year.
There were other announcements that will help SMEs in general, such as the reduction of the commercial and industrial electricity rates. Additionally, the Ontario government will add investment of $680M – for a total of nearly $1B over six years – to expand and improve broadband and cellular access across the province.
The next provincial budget (Spring) will focus more on economic recovery. Interactive Ontario will continue to advocate for measures that would stimulate job creation in our industry, and contribute to the economic recovery of the province.
