The Tax Extender Act of 2009 passed a vote of the House of Representatives yesterday.  Buried in the tax extension legislation is the renewal for one year of Section 181.  The official text is as follows:

Section 117 SPECIAL EXPENSING RULES FOR CERTAIN FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS.

(a) In General – Subsection (f) of section 181 is amended by strking ‘December 31, 2009’ and inserting ‘December 31, 2010’.

(b) Effective Date- The amendment made by this section shall apply to productions commencing after December 31, 2009.

Representative Diane E. Watson is taking credit for introducing the bill under her proposed H.R. 3931.  Read her press release here. Regardless of who is responsible, the noose just got considerably looser for those film makers trying to attract investors to put money in their films which were not ready for production in 2009.  Similar to last year, this 11th hour extension looks like the much needed amnesty for many film makers.

Please continue to check in to see the progress of the Extender Act through the Senate and the White House.  While it is not law yet, we are definitely getting there.