Interactive digital media tax credit (B.C.)

• Annual financial statements or interim financial statements for the tax period, including notes to the financial statements.
• A short history of the corporation, including a list of previously developed products, and the current business plan if available.
• A list of all current and planned interactive digital media products for the tax year, including product names, descriptions, development cycles, release dates, update release dates and screen shots, and, if you provide IDM services to other corporations, a list of corporations associated with the IDM products.
• The current organizational chart, a list of specified employees and key employees including short biographies, and a list of eligible salary and wages for all employees including employee names, job titles, total salaries, and eligible salaries.
• A list of salaries and wages attributable to each eligible and non-eligible product developed for the tax period, plus a description of any assistance other than federal scientific research and experimental development tax credits received for the tax year.

Who is eligible?

• Corporations registered with the British Columbia Ministry of Finance for the tax year.
• Eligible business corporations registered under Part 2 of the British Columbia Small Business Venture Capital Act, if all eligibility criteria are met.

Who is not eligible

• Corporations that do not register with the British Columbia Ministry of Finance for the tax year.
• Corporations that claim a British Columbia scientific research and experimental development tax credit for the tax year.
• Corporations exempt from tax under section 27 of the Income Tax Act (British Columbia), exempt from tax under Part I of the federal Act, prescribed labour-sponsored venture capital corporations, corporations with employee share ownership plans, employee venture capital corporations, small business venture capital corporations, or corporations controlled directly or indirectly by any of those corporations.
• Corporations that carry on a personal services business.

Eligible expenses

• Eligible salary and wages that are directly attributable to eligible activities, incurred by the corporation in the taxation year on or after September 1, 2010, and paid to individuals who were resident in British Columbia on December 31 of the year preceding the end of the taxation year.

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Marketing, human resource services, administrative support services and management services.
• Development of an animated or live action scene or series of scenes relating to an interactive digital media product, other than a cutscene, over which the user has limited or no control.
• Operating system software, products designed to be used for interactive communication, products classified by the Entertainment Software Rating Board as AO (Adults only), products designed for marketing or promoting an entity, product or idea, products that enable gambling with currency, and products for which public financial support would, in the opinion of the Provincial minister, be contrary to public policy.
• Stock options.
• Amounts paid to specified employees that are based on profits or a bonus, or exceed five times the year's maximum pensionable earnings; amounts paid to contractors or sub-contractors; and employer portion of benefits such as CPP, EI and WCB premiums.

• If you have previously registered, submit new applications through your existing IDM account using eTaxBC.
• If this is your first time registering, complete an IDMTC application for registration.
• Submit your application and attach your supporting documents online through eTaxBC.
• Pay your application fee as part of your registration.
• To claim the credit, complete Schedule 429, enter the amount on line 680 of Schedule 5, and submit both schedules with your T2 Corporation Income Tax Return no later than 18 months after the end of the tax year.

• When your application is approved, the ministry will mail an enrolment letter with the information needed to access your IDM account online using eTaxBC.
• After filing the IDMTC application and receiving your IDM account number, you can pay the application fee online using eTaxBC.
• If you pay by electronic funds transfer, you must validate the payment by sending your business name, business number, taxation year, payment date and amount paid by email or fax.
• If you do not validate your payment, the ministry cannot match it to your account and late payment penalties and interest may be charged.
• Late-filed tax credit forms will not be processed.

• If your corporation’s reorganization triggers a year end, contact the ministry.