Texas Rural Filming Bonus — 2.5% TMIIIP Uplift for Out-of-Metro Productions

The Texas rural filming bonus adds 2.5% to your TMIIIP base rate when at least 35% of your principal photography days occur in Texas counties with a population of 300,000 or fewer.

The Threshold: 35% of Filming Days

The qualification is based on filming days, not spend. A 30-day shoot needs at least 11 days in qualifying rural counties to cross the 35% threshold. These days do not need to be consecutive.

Which Counties Qualify?

Any Texas county with a population at or below 300,000 qualifies. This covers the majority of Texas's 254 counties. Notable non-qualifying counties (above 300K): Harris (Houston), Dallas, Tarrant (Fort Worth), Bexar (San Antonio), Travis (Austin), Collin, Denton, El Paso, Hidalgo, and Fort Bend.

The qualifying universe includes all of West Texas, the Panhandle, East Texas piney woods, South Texas ranch country, and most of the Hill Country — enormous production territory.

What the Rural Bonus Means in Practice

On a production with $2M qualifying Texas spend:

• TMIIIP base (25%): $500,000
• Rural bonus (2.5%): $50,000
• Additional value: $50,000 just for restructuring your shooting calendar

Combined with the UEDA bonus (2.5% for filming outside 30 miles of both Austin and Dallas), a production filming in rural West Texas could access both uplifts — $100,000 in additional rebate on $2M qualifying spend.

Stacking with Other Bonuses

Rural filing stacks with all other TMIIIP uplifts. The maximum combined rate is 31% — five 2.5% uplifts on top of a 25% base minus the cap haircut for productions stacking all five.