Last week the Thai cabinet yesterday introduced one of the more bizarre incentive schemes for inbound production, one that costs Thailand money but delivers zero benefit to the recipient. Looking for opportunities to cash in on what it hopes will be the success of The Hangover 2, which was largely shot there, the government seems to have shot itself in the foot.
The government rejected the proposals for incentives that are common elsewhere, such as a tax rebate or grant scheme, as well as declining a proposal for a VAT (GST) rebate or exemption. It did, however, implement a scheme to run until 2015, under which no overseas-based actor will pay tax on their earnings in Thailand during the production of a film there.
