COMING TO TEXAS
Bringing your production to Texas.
The state pays a cash grant of up to 31% of what you spend here, if enough of your paid crew and cast live here. The rules are public. Keeping the records that prove you met them is the part we take off your plate.
Why Texas
A cash grant.
5% to 25% of eligible Texas spend by tier, and up to 31% with additional awards. The state funds it at $300 million every two years through 2035, with no per-project cap.
Everything in one state.
Gulf beaches, the Chihuahuan Desert, the Hill Country, the Piney Woods, the High Plains, and four big cities that double for somewhere else.
Tax you never pay.
Production gear and services skip sales tax with Form 01-339. Crew who stay 30 nights or more in one room skip hotel tax.
No state income tax.
Texas has no personal income tax.
The three rules that decide it
Live here, on paper.
For a live-action feature or TV series starting before September 1, 2027, at least 35% of your paid crew and, separately, 35% of your paid cast including extras must be Texas residents. For documentaries, animation, reality, commercials and games, it’s 35% of crew and cast combined. It rises to 40% for projects that start on or after September 1, 2027. A resident is someone who has lived in Texas since 120 days before your first day of principal photography and signs the state’s Declaration of Texas Residency. The count is by head.
Shoot here.
At least 60% of your filming days must be in Texas.
Apply in the window.
Send the Texas Film Commission’s inquiry form first. The application goes in no earlier than 180 days before principal photography and no later than 5 p.m. Central on the fifth business day before it. Additional awards are picked on the application and are never added later. Approval also depends on the fund having money left, so call early.
The Texas Film Commission decides who qualifies: 512-463-9200.
The tier cliff
The rate applies to all of your Texas spend. A feature that spends $1,499,999 here earns 10%. One that spends $1,500,000 earns 25%. See where your budget lands
Where productions lose it
The state cuts the check after you wrap and it has reviewed your Texas spending, often many months later. Most of the money that goes missing goes missing in the paperwork: residency forms collected at wrap from people who have already gone home, vendors with no Texas address mixed into the Texas spend, location days nobody logged.
What GPS does here
Producer of record on the ground.
Our UPMs and coordinators run the show in Austin and across the state. You keep creative control.
Crew from a Texas bench.
Department heads, coordinators, ADs and PAs who already live here. They bill at standard rates. We charge a placement fee with no markup.
Locations and permits.
Texas has no statewide film permit. Each city, county and agency issues its own. We know which office to call first.
The audit file, built as you shoot.
Residency forms at hire, location days logged the day they happen, vendor records filed the same day. When you wrap, the file is already done.
Who to call
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More than 200 Film Friendly Texas towns have a trained local liaison. The state can send your location request to all of them at once.
Twenty minutes, no charge.
Bring the script, the dates, or the number in your head. We’ll tell you what Texas pays at your level of spend and what the paperwork takes.
This page is a guide, not legal or tax advice. Program rules current to SB 22 and the rules adopted July 12, 2026. Last checked November 12, 2026.