Producer Company

The Producer Company is the producer's continuing trading entity — the company that holds the master relationships with broadcasters, financiers, sales agents and distributors and that submits credit applications. Togra serves producer companies based on either side of the island of Ireland — Republic of Ireland-based or Northern Ireland-based, or a corporate group with bases in both jurisdictions.

The Producer Company is distinct from per-project Qualifying Companies (DACs in the Irish S481 context — see DAC — when required).

Statutory tests by credit

S481 (Ireland)

For Section 481 — the Irish scripted tax credit purposes, the Producer Company must:

• Be incorporated in Ireland, or in an EEA State with a permanent establishment in Ireland through a branch or agency, and be tax-resident in Ireland
• Carry on a trade of producing films on a commercial basis with a view to the realisation of profit
• Make the films for exhibition to the public in cinemas or by broadcast
• Not be a broadcaster, nor connected to a broadcaster
• Hold all the shares in the qualifying company (the DAC)
• Not be part of an undertaking which would be regarded as in difficulty under the EU Rescuing and Restructuring Guidelines as defined in S481

S487A (Ireland)

For Section 487A — the Irish unscripted tax credit purposes, the Producer Company must:

• Be resident in the State, or in an EEA State other than the State and carry on business in the State through a branch or agency
• Carry on a trade of producing unscripted programmes on a commercial basis with a view to the realisation of profit
• Make the programmes for exhibition to the public by broadcast
• Not be a broadcaster, or a company whose business consists wholly or mainly of transmitting unscripted programmes on the internet, nor connected to one

In both cases the producer must indicate whether the application is their first under the relevant section.

AVEC (UK + Northern Ireland)

For AVEC — UK Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit purposes the producer company is the UK / NI producer company filing AVEC through the UK corporation tax system (CT600). Independence criteria apply for the Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC) at 53%: the production must not be part of a major studio group.

A Northern Ireland producer company is the natural AVEC applicant for an NI-based production. AVEC is first-class for NI-based Togra producers — it is not just a cross-border layer on top of S481.

Producer companies with bases in both jurisdictions

A single producer business can have bases in both Ireland and Northern Ireland — for example an Irish Ltd with a NI Ltd as a related company, both under common ownership, sharing creative leadership and slate strategy. Such a group can:

• File S481 / S487A via the Irish entity on projects shot or finished in Ireland
• File AVEC + NI Screen Fund + BFI via the NI entity on projects shot or finished in NI / the UK
• Run cross-border productions structured through both entities under a co-production agreement

Togra supports this corporate-structure pattern at the group level.

Group structure — illustrative

A typical all-island indie group might look like:

Producer Group
├── Ireland Producer Company (Ltd)
│   ├── Project A (DAC) — feature film, S481
│   ├── Project B (DAC) — TV drama, S481
│   └── Project D (no DAC) — S487A unscripted series
└── Northern Ireland Producer Company (Ltd)
    ├── Project C (UK SPV) — feature film, AVEC IFTC
    └── Project E (UK SPV) — animation feature, AVEC 39%

Each Producer Company itself doesn't produce — it owns the per-project qualifying companies (Irish DACs for S481, UK SPVs for AVEC, no separate company for S487A). This separates per-project liability, tax and funding flows from the long-running trading entities.

What the Producer Company does

• Holds master broadcaster, sales agent and distributor relationships
• Carries the slate (multiple projects over years)
• Holds development IP before it is assigned to a per-project qualifying company
• Files the credit applications
• Receives the credit (in S481, the Producer Company is the eventual beneficiary; the DAC is the qualifying company that produces)
• Continues trading post-completion (S481 requires a 12-month continuing-trade declaration in the Schedule 4 compliance report — see FCS — Final Cost Statement)

How Togra supports Producer Companies

Producer companies are modelled as Togra groups (gid). Each group can host any number of projects, of any credit type, irrespective of jurisdiction. Within each group, projects can be DAC-backed (Irish S481), UK SPV-backed (AVEC), directly produced (S487A unscripted, shorts), or any combination.

The Cúram module tracks the Producer Company's ongoing filings — CRO, Companies House, VAT, PAYE, insurance — separately from per-project filings. Producer companies with bases in both jurisdictions can run separate Cúram surfaces for each entity.

The Teoranta module handles the per-entity corporate spine. The Bordáil module handles per-project production. Cearta handles rights and transparency reporting. The Togra modules are designed to layer cleanly over the multi-entity, multi-credit reality of all-island producers.