Kansas Film Tax Credit

Kansas Film Tax Incentive: Current Status

Kansas does not have an active film tax incentive program as of 2026. The state is one of a small number in the country without a dedicated production tax credit, rebate, or grant program for the film and television industry. Productions shooting in Kansas do so without access to the state-level financial offsets available in neighboring Missouri, Oklahoma, and Colorado, or in major incentive states like Georgia and Louisiana.

Legislation to create a Kansas film incentive has been introduced in recent sessions and has passed both chambers of the legislature with strong bipartisan support, but a combination of gubernatorial vetoes and procedural complications has prevented a new program from becoming law as of early 2026. The situation continues to evolve, and advocates remain active in pushing for a program in the current legislative session.

Legislative History and Why Kansas Lacks Incentives

Kansas has not had a meaningful statewide film production incentive for most of the past decade. An earlier program, the Kansas Film Production Credit, was on the books at the Kansas Department of Revenue at a rate of 30% of direct production expenditures, but this program either lacked sufficient funding, had narrow eligibility criteria, or was otherwise not functional in attracting production activity. As of 2025, the ksrevenue.gov page for this credit returned a 404 error, suggesting the program is no longer being actively administered.

More recent legislative efforts have focused on creating an entirely new program. In 2024, a film production tax incentive bill passed the Kansas House with a 102-22 vote and the Kansas Senate with a 32-5 vote, indicating unusually strong bipartisan legislative support. However, the bill was included in a package of tax measures that Governor Laura Kelly vetoed. The broad veto was unrelated to the film credit specifically; the governor opposed other elements of the tax package, and the film credit was caught in the veto along with unrelated provisions.

For the 2025-2026 legislative session, advocates have renewed their push. Kansas HB2038, introduced in January 2025, would create a Film and Digital Media Industry Production Development Act offering credits of 20% to 42% of qualifying expenses depending on production characteristics. The film industry coalition supporting the bill includes the Kansas Film Commission, economic development organizations, tourism groups, and Kansas-based entertainment professionals.

What a Kansas Film Incentive Would Look Like

Based on the most recent legislative proposals, a new Kansas film production incentive would include the following framework:

• Production tax credits in the range of 20% to 42% of qualifying expenses

• Annual program cap of $10 million

• At least 10% of credits approved annually must go to Kansas-based production companies (ensuring some local benefit)

• Administration through the Kansas Department of Commerce

• Credits potentially transferable to other Kansas taxpayers

The 42% ceiling in current proposals would represent a very high top rate that likely reflects uplifts for specific qualifying factors such as resident labor, rural filming, or other state-priority categories. The base rate in most proposals is closer to 20% to 25%, consistent with what other states in the region offer.

Whether any version of this legislation will pass and be signed in the 2026 session is uncertain. Productions planning Kansas activity in 2026 should assume no state incentive will be available and budget accordingly, while monitoring the Kansas Legislature's bill tracker for any developments.

Kansas City: A Production Market Despite No State Incentives

Despite the absence of a state film incentive, the Kansas City metro area, which straddles the Kansas-Missouri state line, is a functioning production market. The Missouri side of Kansas City benefits from Missouri's film tax credit program, while the Kansas side operates without state incentives.

The Kansas City Film Commission (KCFilm) actively supports productions in both the Kansas and Missouri sides of the metro. In 2025, the Kansas City film industry set a record with $24.3 million in economic impact. This production activity is substantially concentrated on the Missouri side, where the Missouri film tax credit makes projects more financially viable, but Kansas-side production support infrastructure, location options, and crew resources are also available.

Productions that can structure their shoot to keep the majority of qualifying activity on the Missouri side of the state line can access Missouri incentives while still using the broader Kansas City metro area for casting, pre-production, equipment, and some location days. This split approach is common for productions working in the bi-state metro.

What Productions Do in Kansas Without Incentives

Productions that do film in Kansas use several cost management approaches:

Location value as the primary justification. Productions where Kansas provides an irreplaceable setting, specifically the tallgrass prairie, Flint Hills ranch country, Wichita's industrial and aviation landscape, or specific agricultural environments, proceed on location merit regardless of incentives. These shoots are typically smaller in scale and rely on lower Kansas operating costs rather than a financial return on the state budget.

Missouri incentives for the majority of the shoot. As described above, Kansas City-based productions often do the majority of their qualifying spend on the Missouri side to access the Missouri film tax credit, using Kansas locations for specific shots rather than as the primary production base.

Local commercial and corporate production. Kansas's corporate base, particularly around Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City's Kansas suburbs, supports a steady volume of corporate video, advertising, and commercial production that operates without needing state production incentives. These projects typically have smaller budgets for which a 20-30% incentive would not be the deciding factor in choosing a location.

Documentary and non-fiction content. Documentaries focused on Kansas subjects, including agriculture, aviation history (Kansas is the Air Capital of the World due to its aircraft manufacturing concentration in Wichita), the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, or other Kansas-specific topics, proceed because the content requires the location regardless of financial incentives.

Kansas Filming Locations

Kansas offers several distinctive settings that have attracted production attention despite the absence of incentives:

Flint Hills and Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. The Flint Hills in eastern Kansas contain the largest remaining intact tallgrass prairie in North America. The sweeping grassland, rolling hills, and undeveloped horizon have served as settings for western films, period productions, and landscape-driven commercial content. The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, administered by the National Park Service near Strong City, provides permitted access for commercial filming.

Monument Rocks (Chalk Pyramids). These natural chalk formations in western Kansas create a visually striking badlands-type landscape that photographs as dramatically different from the typical Midwest imagery. The formations are accessible for commercial filming and have been used in advertising campaigns and documentary work.

Wichita. Kansas's largest city offers urban settings that combine an authentic mid-century American downtown with modern aviation industry infrastructure. The Museum of Industry and Science, the Old Cowtown Museum (a living history frontier town), and the Keeper of the Plains sculpture along the Arkansas River are notable locations.

Kansas wheat fields. Kansas produces more wheat than any other state, and during harvest season (late June), the combination of golden fields, combines, grain elevators, and dramatic plains skies creates agricultural imagery that is genuinely iconic. Autumn and winter prairie shooting can produce equally striking visual conditions.

Historic Route 66 corridor. The southeastern corner of Kansas includes a short but historically significant section of Route 66 through Galena, Riverton, and Baxter Springs, with preserved period roadside architecture and atmosphere.

Permits and Location Resources in Kansas

The Kansas Film Commission, part of the Kansas Department of Commerce, assists productions with location research, permit coordination, and introductions to local agencies and property owners. The commission does not administer a financial incentive program but provides production support services comparable to other state film offices.

Permitting in Kansas varies by location:

• Kansas state parks: Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks issues filming permits for production in state park areas. Applications should be submitted well in advance of planned shooting dates.

• Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve: National Park Service permit required. Commercial filming permit applications are available through the NPS permit system.

• Monument Rocks: Located on private ranch land. Access requires arrangement with the property owner, typically through a nominal fee and agreement.

• Kansas city and municipal locations: Individual city and county governments handle street closure, public space, and other local production permits independently.

Managing Kansas Production Budgets

Without a state financial incentive to offset costs, Kansas productions rely entirely on careful upfront budgeting and real-time cost tracking through production. Saturation's cloud-based production budgeting software gives Kansas line producers and production accountants visibility into every expenditure category as spending occurs, reducing the risk of cost overruns in a production environment where there is no rebate to absorb them.

For productions working across the Kansas-Missouri state line, Saturation's split-location budgeting tools track Missouri-qualifying and Kansas-non-qualifying spend separately, so the production maximizes its Missouri incentive claim while keeping total Kansas expenditures accurately accounted for in the budget-to-actual reporting.

Future Outlook

Kansas remains one of the more active non-incentive states in terms of legislative advocacy for a program. The strong bipartisan vote margins in 2024 suggest that a film incentive would pass if it reaches the governor's desk as a standalone bill rather than embedded in a broader tax package. Industry advocates are working to structure the 2026 legislation to maximize its chances of gubernatorial approval.

Productions planning activity in Kansas in 2027 or beyond should monitor developments at the Kansas Legislature (kslegislature.gov) and through the Kansas Film Commission. If a program is enacted in the 2026 session, it could be operational by late 2026 or early 2027.