Application guidelines - Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit (CPTC), CAVCO / Canadian Heritage
Forms page (separate URL) lists the Breakdown of Costs forms 01F21 (live action) and 01F22 (animation) and says updated downloadable versions per Public Notice 2022-02 were not yet available.
Structured fields
{
"revision": {
"ref": "Page states: Published March 3, 2020; document change log last updated November 4, 2025",
"pinned": true,
"source_url": "https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/funding/cavco-tax-credits/canadian-film-video-production/application-guidelines.html"
},
"checked_at": "2026-10-17T00:00:00.000Z",
"usefulness": "CAVCO's program guidelines for the CPTC. Section 7 gives concrete accounting rules: qualified labour expenditure, the 60% eligible-production-cost cap, labour-expenditure criteria and timing, the 65% look-through estimate for corporate service providers, audit requirements (CPA auditor, schedule of production costs, notes on sources of funds, non-Canadian costs, related parties) and minimum Canadian expenditure tests.",
"source_type": "documentation",
"availability": "available",
"source_owner": "Canadian Audio-visual Certification Office (CAVCO), Department of Canadian Heritage",
"next_check_at": "2026-10-24T00:00:00.000Z",
"known_limitations": [
"Page is 170,000+ characters; the collector read sections 7.01-7.10 and the overview, not every chapter (e.g. corporate eligibility, key creative points).",
"Figures in section 7 are printed with '$'; the cost report itself must be in Canadian dollars (7.09.04).",
"Treaty co-productions: audit threshold is measured on the Canadian production company's costs (7.09.01).",
"Describes the source's rules; the collector executed nothing and this is not legal or tax advice."
]
}Evidence claims
- [sourced_fact] The CPTC is 25% of qualified labour expenditure. · locator: Overview source
- [sourced_fact] The maximum CPTC is 15% of the total cost of production net of assistance. · locator: Overview source
- [sourced_fact] Eligible production cost is 60% of total production costs once financing amounts considered 'assistance' are deducted. · locator: 7.02.01 source
- [sourced_fact] An audited schedule of production costs is required at Part B for productions with a final cost of $500,000 or more. · locator: 7.09.01 source
- [sourced_fact] Audit cost reports should follow the line items of the standard Telefilm live-action budget template (Excel) as far as possible. · locator: 7.09.04 source
- [sourced_fact] Eligible labour expenditures must be incurred in the taxation year or the preceding year and paid within the year or 60 days after year end. · locator: 7.03 source
- [sourced_fact] Where a corporate service provider's employee-labour amount is unknown, CAVCO and the CRA generally treat 65% of the labour portion of the invoice as a reasonable estimate. · locator: 7.05.03 source
- [sourced_fact] A production other than a treaty co-production must meet two Canadian-expenditure tests, the first requiring not less than 75% of service costs (excluded costs aside) to be payable for services provided to or by Canadian individuals. · locator: 7.10.01 source
- [upstream_claim] Research review verdict at export: reviewed (as of 2026-10-17). Recorded by the research pipeline, not a hub review outcome; evidence.review stays unreviewed until an independent reviewer records one.
Rights
| component | license | hosting | redistribution | modification | training | Evidence and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| documentation | unknown | restricted | restricted | restricted | unknown | Canada.ca Terms and Conditions: non-commercial reproduction of materials is allowed without charge or further permission if the reproducer exercises due diligence on accuracy, gives the complete title and author, and states it is a copy of the version at the original URL; commercial redistribution requires prior written permission. Government of Canada symbols may not be reproduced without authorisation. |
Linked records
- How should generative-AI generation credits and compute be classified in a production chart of accounts and treated under tax-credit expenditure rules? discusses → this
- Which audit-threshold rule governs a project co-funded by Telefilm, the Canada Media Fund and the CPTC when the documents differ at $250,000 and $500,000? discusses → this
- Is there a published mapping between Telefilm/CAVCO numbered budget lines, Movie Magic Budgeting default account numbers and AICP bid-form sections? discusses → this
- A cross-jurisdiction checklist assembled from the sources, each step attributed. (1) Keep production books apart: separate books of account and a bank account into which financing is deposited and from which costs are paid [telefilm ARR s2]; retain documents five years [telefilm ARR s2.2; cmf appen… cites → this
- As printed by each source, in its own currency and period, not converted. UK AVEC (GOV.UK guidance updated 19 Feb 2026): rates 34% default, 39% for children's TV, animated films and animated TV, 53% for independent films (from 1 April 2025 for costs incurred from 1 April 2024); qualifying costs are… cites → this
- Mostly but not at the boundaries. Telefilm ARR (5 March 2024): audited final certified activity cost statement when the budget is 'in excess of $500,000'; review engagement for 'in excess of $250,000' up to and including $500,000; uncertified final cost report with a declaration at '$250,000' or le… cites → this
- UK: expenditure unpaid more than 4 months after the end of the accounting period in which it is incurred is excluded, even if there is an unconditional obligation to pay; it may count later in the period it is paid [crec051000; crec056300]. Australia: 'incurred' means a presently existing legal lia… cites → this
- They differ and several block hosting copies. GOV.UK pages (AVEC guidance, HMRC manuals) and the HSE web page are under the Open Government Licence v3.0, which requires acknowledging the source [ogl; avec; hse]. The HSE leaflet INDG360 instead carries an older Crown copyright notice allowing free r… cites → this
- No single published standard was found. Movie Magic Budgeting lets each budget define its own account-number pattern (1-6 characters per level) and says every category and account is expected to carry a number that can later match the production's accounting system [mmb Account Coding]. Telefilm's … cites → this
- None was found. Searches for generative-AI cost tracking returned only vendor blog posts, which were not recorded. Netflix's Partner Help Center has a Gen AI category, but fetching it redirects to a script-driven hub that returned only a 'Knowledge Hub' heading, so the guidance text could not be re… cites → this